Bezoars of Yesterday and Tomorrow
by Zikare
Summary: Sequel The Gall Stone of Doom. Volturi dead & Cullens left to rebuild & bring eggs to vampires. Next generation of Cullens go to middle school w/ humans & Jasper travels into his past. Full summary inside. Canon. Not Carlisle/Jasper slash, but their POVs
1. Summary

Bezoars of Yesterday and Tomorrow

*Contains Spoilers*

Hypothesis: Vampires are capable of vertical inheritance.

Objectives:

Finish knocking Jasper up, for the third time. Why? Because a story is not complete without a parity for Jasper.

Knock up Emmett and Rosalie too. Why? Because it's their way of dealing with the loss of a child.

Rebuild vampire society after the war, including the transition to an egg-laying society and the adoption of eggs that were orphaned by the war.

Move the Cullens back into human civilization and send the kids to middle school, so that they can learn to interact with humans and blend in.

Send Masen to speech therapy with the humans so that he can learn to talk.

Send Jasper back in time, with the aid of his time-traveling twins, to meet his human family and resolve any lingering issues he still has from his convergence.

Accuse Jasper of being sexually attracted to his grandmother and bring up this accusation as many times as possible. Why? Because it's the new running gag.

Make entire story one hundred percent biologically accurate, despite the vampires.

Tell a bunch of Cullenesque stories and make it funny, because that which is funniest is best.


	2. Book1 Carlisle ch1

Book 1 – Carlisle – Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Carlisle POV:

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><p>The Cullen-Volturi War challenged me mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and morally in ways I had never imagined. Mentally, because it was a war of strategy and I was playing for the lives of my family members. Spiritually, because I came to question just what kind of a god would allow the pointless loss of life that resulted from the war over what was basically reproductive rights. Morally, because I authorized the use of nuclear weapons on my enemies, but the majority of victims were innocent humans. And emotionally, because I had lost my son.<p>

Carl was irreplaceable to me and I loved him beyond measure. He was so much more than my son or a fellow healer; he was my precious child who brought life and joy into my life. He made my wife's eyes light up and sparkle with happiness. He made my cold dead heart warm with love. He made his brothers laugh and smile. He was smart, kind, loyal, and full of love. He was the glue that held our family together. He made us whole and without him, we were broken.

I replay the events that led to his death over and over again in my head. Not a day goes by where I do not find myself with my head in my hands, grief in my heart, and the burning sensation of dry tears in my eyes as I think about my lost son and what I could have done differently that day. I should never have allowed Carl and his friend Rosita to leave the living room during the battle. Esme and I were in charge of watching the children and in letting two of them leave our sight, we failed as parents and as protectors. We were useless when it mattered most.

I should have checked on the children, to make sure they were not getting themselves into trouble and that they were still there. I should have heard when they left. I should have asked Scryan, the psychic, to scry their future for me. Of course he had not seen anything, nor had his mother Alice, because there were hybrids involved. But if they had looked more closely, maybe they would have noticed the blind-spot in their visions. Maybe they would have given us a forewarning of the tragedy that was about to happen. Maybe we could have stopped Carl and Rosita from going out on that battlefield. Maybe they would still be here alive today.

I should have asked Eliza and Masen, the mind-readers, to tell me what Carl and Rosita were thinking while they were upstairs. But I did not ask and they were busy reading so many other minds that day that neither of them had noticed the aberrant thoughts coming from the third floor. Most of the fight was within mind-reading range, so they were flipping through the thoughts of the warriors on both sides and watching the battle unfold first hand and in real-time. And what they could not see from the warriors, they were getting from Scryan and Jackson.

There were enough hybrids involved that Scryan's visions of the future were severely diminished, but he could still see all of the hybrid-free sub-battles raging on. And of course he saw this before it actually happened, so Masen was busy telepathing warnings to various fighters on our side, trying to save, or at least prolong, a few more lives. And although Jackson's visions were of the past and on a time delay, he was the only one who had the entire picture of what had happened in crystal clear detail. Eliza could not help with the telepathing of warnings, but she had been enthralled with the play-by-play going on inside Jackson's head.

Maybe the empaths could have sensed the deceit associated with Carl and Rosita sneaking out the window, but they had not. The rage, fear, and despair of war all around were sufficient to drown out two small specks of aberrant emotions and occupy their minds. Ashley, the youngest empath, was in such pain from the emotions of war that it was all Jasper, her father, could do to make the situation bearable. Neither of them had been in any state to notice two tiny specks of mischief running out onto the battlefield.

We had so many chances to notice something and to prevent this tragedy before it happened, but in the end, Carl and Rosita slipped through our grasp without any of us even noticing, and it was all my fault. Esme and I were the ones assigned to watch and protect the kids. We were the ones who let Rosita and Carl out of our sights. We were responsible for their deaths and Esme was a wreck. She had already lost a son as a human and a pair of eggs, because we had not known what they were, so Carl was the fourth child she had lost. He was my third, but I had to be the strong one and hold myself together, because we still had two living children who depended on us.

Our oldest son Aiden had lost his littermate, his roommate, and his brother and he was devastated. Those two loved to bicker and fight, but deep down they loved each other and had a bond that could never be broken. Adriel, our youngest son, looked up to his older brother Carl and thought that he and his brothers were invincible. This was the first cruel indication of mortality Adriel had ever encountered and he was not dealing with it well.

So I had a lot to deal with emotionally at home and I could live a hundred thousand years and never get over the loss of my Carl, but there were other issues that had to be dealt with and I could not just curl up into a ball and hide myself away from the world. I had to be strong for my family and help Aiden, Adriel, and Esme through their grief, but also, I had a larger family to be strong for and other issues on my plate. Rosita, who had also died, was my family too.

Esme and I had adopted six young adult vampires in the years before we learned that biological vampire children were a possibility. Edward, Bella, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice, and Jasper were our first children and no matter how old they get, they will always be our children and hold special places in our hearts. Our love did not get stretched thin when our family grew, because our hearts and ability to love grew with each new addition. And as difficult as it was to lose a child, it was equally as devastating to lose our granddaughter and to have to watch our children lose their daughter.

Rosalie and Emmett were heartbroken over the loss of their Rosita. She was just as integral to their family as Carl was to ours. Children were the one thing Rosalie had desired in this half-life of ours and she was miserable for the first hundred-plus years when she thought that she would never be able to have them. Her three daughters meant everything to her and I was happy to see the smile on her face when her dreams of motherhood finally came true. But now one of those dreams had been revoked and cut short, robbing my daughter of her chance to see her own daughter grow up. And as devastated as Rosalie was, her husband Emmett was worse.

Rosita had been Emmett's first egg to survive. She had come out of his stomach. He had been the one to carry her for a hundred years and now he had lost her and she was not the first child he had lost either. Like my wife and me, Emmett and Rosalie had also lost a pair of eggs before we learned of their secret. Rosalie had mourned their loss fervently, but it was Emmett who never really got over it. He felt like a failure because he had thrown those eggs away, not even recognizing that they were eggs. I am not sure if he will ever get over the loss of his third child.

Rosita and Carl were not the only casualties of war, but they were the youngest and most innocent. Besides the losses in my immediate family, there were numerous losses of life in my extended family. Everyone who had stood by us in our hour of need and was on that island during the battle had lost coven members. Not one coven had escaped intact and many were down to only a few members. Only individual nomads or pairs of vampires had survived intact, but that was only if one did not lump all of the nomads together. As a group, plenty of nomads had died as well.

Tanya, Jason, and Carmen of the Denali's were gone, leaving Eleazar, Kate, and Garrett to carry on without them. The same story applied to the Amazonian coven, which was down to just Zafrina and her mate Fernando. Only Maggie, Sean, and Siobhan were left from the Irish and English covens. Both Romanians survived, but there were only two of them to begin with. And on the other side of the spectrum, Benjamin and Tia, the last of the Egyptians, had both perished.

So everyone in our extended family was grieving and we had to carry on and rebuild in the absence of our fallen friends, family, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. There was very little damage to buildings, but that is not the type of rebuilding I am talking about. The Volturi brothers had been our leaders for over four thousand years and with their deaths, our government ceased to be. That was what we wanted, freedom from their tyranny, but now there was a glaring gaping hole where they had been.

I never wanted power and I've done everything in my capabilities to avoid positions of authority. When I told Aro that I wanted peace, I meant it. I would have been happy to live for eternity under the Volturi's rule, if only they would have allowed us to live in peace. Our family first appeared on their radar because of our size. Our coven was large, but it grew out of love, not greed or desire for power. My children stayed because we all shared a series of moral beliefs and ideals. We valued human life and desired to live without murder, but that was just what we had done.

We dropped a hydrogen bomb on Volterra, which was a human city in the middle of Italy. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people happened to have been within the blast range, resulting in numerous injuries and the loss of over eighty thousand lives. These were people who had families, friends, and children who loved them. Many of them were even children. The blood of over eighty thousand people was on my hands and their loss will probably weigh on my conscious until my body turns to dust.

But in the end, dropping that bomb saved more lives than it took. It served a purpose to us, in that it destroyed the Volturi, but it also served a purpose to the humans. The Sudanese terrorists, also known as the Sudanese Liberation Movement, were planning on dropping a hydrogen bomb of their own on Rome during Easter; if they had succeeded, the death toll would have been at least an order of magnitude greater. But as it was, the terrorists were killed and their bomb components were destroyed and their organization thought that they had been successful. They were disappointed that the bomb had not reached its target and the magnitude of deaths they had planned had not been achieved, but it was clear that they could not try again now that their cover was blown. The United Nations was on high security alert throughout Italy, so there would be no second attempt at blowing up Rome.

Sudan and the surrounding countries were at war with the rest of the world, because of the New Ebola virus. The Sudanese and other people in sub-Saharan Africa were asymptomatic carriers of New Ebola because they had all been infected with the disease in utero, acquiring the disease from their mothers. If the mother was infected, the fetus would be persistently infected, immune to the acute form of the disease, and live a full and normal life. And since everyone had it, it was not a big issue for the Sudanese people.

The issue was what happened when people with the virus came into contact with other people. If the mother was not infected, the fetus could not acquire the disease early enough to develop a persistent infection. By the time the infants were born, it was already too late and only an acute infection could develop, and subsequently death would ensue.

The non-infected people tried to develop a vaccine against the virus, but its RNA genome evolved too quickly, presenting the same problems associated with HIV and influenza vaccination. Even so, New Ebola was the number one most deadly disease and a great deal of effort was wasted on trying to develop a vaccine. But in the end, no vaccine was a hundred percent effective, or even thirty percent effective, and the virus would evolve immunity within a matter of months.

There was some hope at first that resistance could be genetically spliced into the human genome, using standard biotechnological techniques. Even more money, time, and effort were wasted on this fruitless endeavor, because the modifications proved to be lethal. Biologists had tried to remove or modify several critical human proteins that were essential in the course of New Ebola infection, but invariably, either the modification was not sufficient to provide protection from the virus, or the modification was lethal, because all of these human proteins were critical for normal human function.

In the end, the researchers gave up on vaccines and germ-line modifications in favor of containment as the number one method for prevention. The virus was contained to sub-Saharan Africa and every effort was made to prevent its spread to the rest of the world, which meant the rest of the world was susceptible to the infection. If the containment was breached, everyone who comes in contact with the virion would develop acute Ebola with all of the classic symptoms, including hemorrhaging, such as vomiting and coughing up blood.

The biggest difference between New Ebola and Classic Ebola, besides the increased difficulty with respect to vaccination, is that Classic Ebola only presents with hemorrhagic symptoms in ten percent of cases, while New Ebola presents with these symptoms in one hundred percent of acute cases and consequently has a hundred percent lethality. Thus it is absolutely lethal to Caucasians and not surprising that these people have a problem with the disease.

The part of the globe inhabited with New Ebola-sensitive people is vehemently opposed to not just the spread of the virus, but the existence of the virus at all. The current three biggest super powers, China, India, and Brazil, had declared war against New Ebola and Sudan, and they had even convinced the majority of the lesser super powers, such as the European Union and Mexico, to join the war effort. The New United States of America had joined the war effort at first, but we were able to convince Jacob to use his power as Chief of the Quileutes to convince the US to back out, but that was over two hundred years ago now.

The Sudanese and the rest of the world had not been at war for this entire time, because there had been several truces and attempts at peace talks. The Chinese, Brazilians, and Indian governments would never have agreed to back down in their genocide of the Sudanese, but the Sudanese had reverse engineered the hydrogen bomb and set a few off in each country. Millions of people were killed, but all three countries recovered and all three had surrendered, just as long as the Sudanese agreed to stop dropping bombs and to stay out of their countries.

Normally the winning country occupies the loser to ensure compliance with the terms of the surrender, but the Sudanese could not do that, or their disease would spread and the Chinese, Brazilians, and Indians would all die. So instead the losing countries were left free to oversee their own efforts to comply with the terms of the surrender. They were charged with destroying their own armories, weapons, and military and converting their societies back to peace-loving civilian-centric countries. Needless to say, they did not comply.

A few decades passed and the Ebola-sensitive side regrouped and attacked again. It was not so much the virus that they were fighting over now, because the Sudanese had complied with their side of the bargain and contained their virus to sub-Saharan Africa. Now the war was mostly about jealousy and money. The Sudanese were evolving into a new species of humans that were smarter with much larger brains and consequently they were leading the world in inventions, innovations, and new ideas, not to mention gross national product. The Sudanese were surpassing all three of the three biggest super powers and the three super powers did not want to let that happen.

So China, India, and Brazil attacked Sudan just two decades after the end of the first Sudanese War. The second war lasted a decade and ended the same way as the first, with the Sudanese manufacturing destructive weapons, dropping them on the aggressors, and forcing their surrender. And the cycle did not end with the second war, because the Sudanese let their enemy see to their own compliance again, because they still were without a choice in the matter, so that just led to the third Sudanese War. That gave way to the fourth and fifth Sudanese Wars and now we were in the sixth Sudanese War.

The sixth Sudanese War was different in that this time the Sudanese were the aggressors. They had always been the defenders, only trying to protect their rights to exist and their lives. They had always waited to drop bombs until they had no other choice, but not this time. This time they were monitoring the Indians, Brazilians, and Chinese and when their enemy started training their soldiers for the next war, the Sudanese decided to act offensively for once.

But the official Sudanese government had signed a treaty with the UN saying that they would not attack and they wanted to maintain their reputation. They were vying for the top position as the world's largest super power, now that Brazil, the former top, had taken an economic down turn. And although the Sudanese were doing well on their own and within the African continent, they would never be able to achieve that goal if they were not trading with the rest of the world. And the rest of the world was Ebola-sensitive, so they were sympathetic to the anti-Ebola movement.

And in this precarious situation Sudan had been placed in, a new organization had formed that called themselves the Sudanese terrorists. The name was a misnomer, because the group was really from Uganda, but Uganda was part of the Sudanese Union and were close allies with their neighbors. Whenever Sudan went to war, Uganda and all of the other countries in the Sudanese Union were dragged into war with them and there was nothing Uganda could do about it, because they too carried the deadly virus.

The Ugandans were sick and tired of the two plus centuries of war and wanted to put an end to the anti-Ebola movement. They released a website proposing that all humans be deliberately infected with the virus and that natural selection be allowed to take its course; its course being the elimination of _Homo sapiens_ allowing for the spread of _Homo sudaniensis. _Not only would this plan put an end to the endless wars, but also it would provide their burgeoning species with five more continents to inhabit, as opposed to just the one.

It was still a bit premature to separate the two populations of humans into separate species, because they could still interbreed in a test tube. But in just the last few hundred years they had clearly diverged into subspecies and with New Ebola acting as a population barrier, there was little hope for mixing and joining of the two. If two people from opposing sides of the divide tried to mate, the one without Ebola would die within two weeks.

It was possible for an Ebola-infected female to conceive before the Ebola-sensitive male died, but it was socially forbidden both because of the war and because of the difference in intellect. The war meant that the two sides were quarantined from each other and had no interaction with each other, so that there were no opportunities for romance and hybridization. And because the classic humans were so much dumber with such tiny heads, no Sudanese woman in her right mind would find a Classic human man attractive.

And so the Ugandans had formed the Sudanese Terrorists and planned a pre-emptive strike. They were going to drop that hydrogen bomb on Rome during Easter, when the city would be packed with tourists, but their plan had been thwarted when we dropped our bomb on nearby Volterra, which was only three hundred kilometers to the north. The terrorists and their bomb components were all within the blast range and so had been destroyed and the head of the organization back in Uganda had claimed credit for our bomb. Needless to say our bomb started Sudanese War number six, even though the first official blow did not occur until later when the Indians bombed Somalia.

I wished I could tell the two sides what Alice saw in her visions, because I thought that that knowledge would help to put a stop to all of the fighting. Alice saw both sides coexisting indefinitely, because in the next few hundred years, the virus and the Sudanese people will have evolved in symbiosis with each other so long that an exclusive virus-host relationship will develop. New Ebola will become exclusive to _H. sudaniensis_ and completely loose its ability to infect classic _H. sapiens_. Once that happens the two species will be able to live in peace and harmony with each other and the wars will cease on their own.

As big as this change was for the human world, its effect on the vampire world was equal. Most of the vampires on this planet drink humans, whether they be Classic or Sudanese, they are our natural food-stuff. No one is more opposed and disgusted by this fact than myself, but I have come to accept it. I cannot change others or bend them to my will and I do not even want to do so. I wish that all vampires would discover the joys of animal blood, but I will not force them to do so. Instead I stood and watched and listened to the debates on the war.

I have never been more ashamed of my species as I was when I first learned that vampires were considering altering the course of history in favor of one side over the other, based upon the taste of their blood. They say that Classic human has a sweeter taste, while the Sudanese have a more flavorful, nuttier taste. The whole issue is absolutely disgusting and repulsive if you ask me, but that does not stop the others from arguing that their favorite flavor should win this war.

Some vampires preferred the sweeter taste of the Classic humans, while others preferred the nuttier taste of the Sudanese. Some wanted to tip the scales in the favor of the Classic human, so that they could continue to enjoy that sweet taste whenever they wanted, while others wanted to tip the scales the other way, so that the nuttier taste would become more widely available. It was Alice who suggested a third alternative that both species be allowed to live, so that we might have variety in our diets.

Humans have thousands of edible food items to choose from, but vampires only have one: human blood. Sure my family has added variety to the monotony by consuming animals, but the taste is so vile that the average vampire would never touch an animal when they could have a human. By doubling the number of human species alive simultaneously, we were doubling the number of food sources and therefore flavors available for our species. In the past there had been numerous species of humans available for consumption, so this would be a return to a more balanced diet for us.

I was utterly shocked and sickened that my own adoptive daughter would think of such a repulsive idea, but once she explained her logic behind it, I jumped on board. Alice did not actually want to drink from either species, because she was fine with animals and synthetic blood, but she had seen this rational in a vision and realized that it was a perfect fit for us. It was perfect because it was an argument that other vampires, the carnivorous ones, could support. And most importantly, it was an argument that would increase the odds of both species surviving, which was what our family wanted in the first place. I hated to think that either species would genocide the other, and so we were pushing for the survival of both types of humans.

But who was I to say anything? Who was Alice to convince our entire species that her idea was right? We had no power and no authority. Before our war with the Volturi ended, Aro and Marcus had been controlling the vampire population and enforcing our laws. They had ensured that we all kept the secret and that none of us interfered with the war. Alice had sent an anonymous letter to Aro explaining the advantages of maintaining the two species and by some stroke of luck, he had been convinced. Aro put himself in charge of keeping the vampires out of this war, so that both species would be available for us to drink, but now Aro was gone.

In the aftermath of the destruction of the Volturi, vampire society had lost any semblance of government, order, or law that we had. Vampires began to flaunt the one true law, that we keep the secret, and were flat out ignoring all of the lesser laws. There was a colony of immortal children in Antarctica, a colony of human livestock in Indonesia, and the mysterious sparkling albino humans in the mountains of Sudanese South Africa. And those were just the three biggest stories that made their way to human ears. The human livestock incident was passed off as part of the human slave trade, and the Antarctica incident was said to be an indication that yet another new human species was evolving increased cold-tolerance, while the sparkly people were ruled by the Sudanese to be the result of a mass-induced hysteria brought on by the consumption of bad beef. The Classic humans thought it was an indication that the Sudanese were crazy.

By far the worst part of the wild vampires running loose among the humans was never reported. The worst part was the hundreds of vampires who were attacking either Classic human or Sudanese soldiers in mass, in the hopes of turning the war in favor of their favorite flavor. Whole armies were found mysteriously dead with no signs of the enemy. Entire fields would be found filled with soldiers with broken necks, slit throats, and drained blood. The humans blamed it on propaganda from the other side and refused to release the stories to the media, but I knew the truth.

I knew that innocent humans were being murdered because the vampires were out of control. I knew that they had to be stopped and that I was responsible for the destruction of the one and only vampire organization that had ever placed itself in charge of controlling vampires and preventing incidents like these from occurring. I had unleashed this curse upon the humans and it was up to me to right this situation.

I could turn my head and look the other way and let some other vampire clean up the mess I had created; someone who actually had desires to rule. But our last leaders had desired to rule, they had wanted the power that came with it, and look where that got us: oppressed and not even free to germinate our eggs. We were sentenced to death for having children, when reproduction is a basic desire common to all forms of life. There is nothing more universal than the desire for children, except maybe the desire to make their lives better than our own.

What kind of world I was making for my children was a major factor in my decision to step forward and take an active leadership role. I did not want another repeat of the Volturi or for my children to have to fight another war for freedom when they grow up and get tired of whatever harsh restriction the new regime inflicts upon us. Tyranny ends here and now and our next government will be a democracy in which we are all permitted to vote upon what is right.

Kair and Kare, my granddaughters from the future, had told us all that the next government would be a democracy. Kair and Kare were Jasper and Alice's time-traveling twins that came to tell us that it was okay to drop the hydrogen bomb. I would never have allowed the dropping of that bomb if those two girls had not convinced me that even more lives would be lost if we did not. But also, the twins had given us information on what was to come.

They said that the new government would be called the Democratic Republic of Vampiredom, or the DRV. They had even said that my oldest son Aiden would be president of the DRV in their time. Aiden, with his talent for peace, was the perfect logical choice for president, because he would ensure that everyone got along and settled disputes in a peaceful fair manner. And Aiden was no megalomaniac; he had no desire for power or control. He would make a good fair leader and oversee a time of peace for our violent species.

But Aiden was just a boy. How would he ever be able to realize my dreams of peace and freedom for all if he would not be able to start for another eight hundred years? Who would take over and what damage would they cause in that lengthy period of time? Could I really let the world go to pot and leave my son to clean up the mess on his own when he grows up? Would I really let my son inherit such a mess?

The answer was clearly no: I would step up myself and see that our society was put back together in a fair and peaceful manner. I would play the role of the reluctant leader, so that my son does not inherit an impossible situation and another unending war. I would ensure that the secret is kept, that immortal children are not doomed to this existence, that humans were not kept prisoners to be used as food, and that armies of humans were not slaughtered to tip the scales of war. I would champion peace and rebuild vampire society.

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><p>Author's note: Please review!<p> 


	3. Book3 Jasper ch1

Book3 Jasper ch.1

Jasper's POV:

After taking the children out of human junior high school in Manitoba Canada, Alice and I decided to move south, back to America and my home town of Houston Texas. Peter and Charlotte had moved there, because they were both originally from the area and they wanted their children and their hosts to grow up where they had.

Peter and Charlotte were among the first to implant hosts. Both hosts were in their eighties now, because they had been implanted as children. They would live to be just over a hundred, which is not a long time for a human to live these days and is considered relatively young to die, but both hosts had been dying of New Ebola. The Sudanese had attacked the hosts' hometown in southern India and everyone in the town had been infected. We had gotten a dozen children out and saved them from the deadly virus by implanting them with our eggs. Implantation came with a hundred year expiration date, but in this case, it was a hundred years more than they would have gotten.

My wife Alice had helped Charlotte pick out their place in Houston and since Alice knew that we would want to visit, she had chosen a pair of ranches that were up for sale. Charlotte and Peter bought one and Alice and I bought the other. They were both beautiful properties with ten acres each that could be used for horses and cattle, or just to let little vampires run around. With the twenty acres between the two ranches, there was no chance of humans happening across the children.

So when Scryan got himself kicked out of human school just twenty years before the emergence date for Peter and Charlotte's first two children, we all moved to our new Texas ranch. It gave Alice enough time to decorate our new house and buy all new clothes, not to mention baby clothes and paraphernalia. Charlotte and Peter had planned on getting just the vampire baby care basics, such as size eighteen month nightgowns and blankets, but then vampire babies do not need much. Thus Alice was appalled at their nursery plans and was on a mission to take Charlotte on as many shopping trips as possible to rectify the situation.

Alice had just finished decorating our house, so today she turned her attention to Charlotte and suggested a shopping trip. She dragged Charlotte out with her first thing this morning and they were not back yet. Jackson went with them, because he was very excited about his new cousins, and wanted to help pick out baby clothes and nursery patterns. He was not the most fashion conscious of my children, but they were all Alice's children, so that still meant he could shop with the best of them.

My other three children were with me visiting Peter at his house. Allison was on her laptop, Ashley was sketching, and Scryan was trying to squeeze his six foot tall frame into my lap. He was only three inches shorter than me and just as wide, so he had curled himself into a ball to make himself fit. He was almost eleven hundred years old and he was getting a little too old to cuddle, but I was not about to tell him that, because he was my last one that still let me cuddle him. Inevitably he would come to that conclusion on his own, which was where Kair and Kare came in, but they were not even disgorged yet, so I needed to make this time with Scryan last.

Peter's hosts Nilay and Vinutha were in their respective rooms working on the internet. Nilay had been through over a dozen girlfriends and Vinutha a dozen boyfriends and they had each moved out of Peter and Charlotte's ranch with every relationship, but then they would break up and move back home. Neither had been married or had children, but that was typical for humans their age. And they considered Peter and Charlotte their adoptive parents, even if they were a bit more distant and less affectionate than typical parents; they had to be because of the species difference.

"So Jasper, how does this emergence thing work? Do we tell Nilay and Vinutha what's happening, or keep it a secret? Do we throw a big party and invite everyone over to watch? Is it messy?" Peter asked me, after making sure his humans were out of ear shot.

"We told our hosts what to expect. Like yours, our hosts' were dying when we chose them, so no one was too upset over what was happening. Our first two thought we were heroes for keeping them alive for a hundred years," I answered his first question.

"And the mess?" Peter prompted when I paused.

"It's fairly messy. We always put down plastic sheeting and medical pads to make it easier to clean up."

"And a party?"

"I wouldn't. We threw parties for our hosts the day before, so they could see all of their friends on their last day of life, but I wouldn't do a party for the emergence. We had a family gathering with Allison and Jackson. There were just the eight of us plus the hosts, but that was way too many."

"Uncle Edward says Dad almost killed him for getting too close to me," Allison said, looking up from her computer.

"No, Mom says it was Jackson that Dad almost killed Uncle Edward over," Scryan countered from my lap.

"My patience was short that day and Edward was on my last nerve. He kept getting within a ten foot radius of my hatchlings and I was a bit over protective," I admitted.

"You went all Papa Bear on him," Scryan added, quoting his mother.

"Yes, I did, but he deserved it. You should never get too close to a vampire with a newborn. It's our nature to be very protective. Edward of all people should've known not to get so close," I said.

"Didn't he just get Mom a tub of water so she could wash Jackson and then go back to standing in his corner?" Scryan asked. All of the children had heard the story of their emergences numerous times.

"Yes," I admitted.

"Is that necessary? Washing them?" Peter asked curiously.

"No. They do come out messy and covered in blood, but it doesn't help to wash it off. They have a film on their skin from the egg-sack and it doesn't come off with soap and water. It has to be licked away, because only vampire venom can dissolve it. Alice washed Jackson and removed all of the flavor before licking him, but I just licked Scryan and Allison without the bath."

"And Ashley?" Peter asked.

"Alice had already perfected synthetic venom by then, so she gave Ashley a bath in the stuff. She never got a proper licking," I replied. Ashley was the first child in our family not to have been licked. When Emmett had Violet a few years later, he licked her, but when Esme had Adriel, she used synthetic venom, so Ashley and Adriel were the only two pureblood vampires alive today that had not been licked. Alice thought the trend would grow, but I was against it, because licking was natural.

"Is that what's wrong with her?" Scryan asked teasingly.

Ashley looked up from her sketching and sent a dagger of anxiety, fear, and dread directed at her brother, who screamed out in pain when it hit him.

"That's enough you too," I scolded my children.

"Will mine be like that? Will they use their powers when they fight with each other?" Peter asked. Alice had seen that Jace would be an evasive and Kynna would levitate.

"I imagine they will."

"And how will that work? I would've thought Scryan had the dominant power, but clearly it's Ashley who wins all of their fights," Peter said.

"Hey! I win some too," Scryan protested, but given that he was currently cuddling into my lap, it probably did not have the effect he intended.

"I think a big part of it is personality. If their powers were reversed, Ashley would still be the dominant one. Scryan is just too sweet to be mean to his big sister," I replied giving Scryan a squeeze and letting him feel just how proud I was of my sweet boy and sharing my love.

"Oh…" Peter replied lost in thought.

No one spoke for several minutes and the silence was broken by the sound of doors opening and closing from the bedrooms down the hall. Then we heard Nilay's voice from the hallway outside Vinutha's room, "Nutha, did you see the news just now?" He was excited and nervous and speaking rather quickly for a human.

"No, I was teleconferencing with work. What happened?" Vinutha asked. Hardly anyone ever went in to work nowadays when everything could be done from home, because it saved the company the cost of an office.

"Come on, I've gotta tell Dad," he said before rushing into the hallway, dragging Vinutha behind him. "Dad! Did you see the news?"

"No, what happened?" Peter repeated Vinutha's question and moved to turn the television on.

"The war's over. Sudan's invasion of India's complete. They won and China's surrendering," Nilay said as images of Indian streets with Sudanese soldiers appeared on the wall film. Wall film came out after flat screens, because why put up with millimeter thick flat screens when one could have nanometer wide film? Plus the film could be rolled up and easily transported, weighed almost nothing, stuck to any surface, and did not wrinkle when wadded up into a ball and thrown, explaining the popular phrase, "Hey, throw me the TV real quick, I wanna check something."

The end of this war was not totally unexpected, because it had started eighty years ago when India had attacked Somalia and then Sudan retaliated by attacking India, which was how Nilay and Vinutha got infected with New Ebola in the first place. Since then there had been numerous cease fires and peace talks, but more recently the Sudanese had been amassing a ground force and the air capacity to drop them into hostile territory. The whole thing should have ended decades ago, but the rest of the world kept sending soldiers and other forms of aid to defend India, because if India fell, then they would be next.

The Sudanese had stayed away from using ground fighters for the first several hundred years of this war, because they were trying to prevent the spread of New Ebola, which was what the war was about in the first place: the Sudanese had it and the rest of the world did not want it and did not trust the Sudanese to control it. But then the Sudanese had gotten fed up with the constant fighting, because no matter how many times their enemies surrendered and promised to stop attacking, countries like India would not stop. We had all thought the Indian occupation, which started ten years ago, would be an instant death sentence for the rebellious nation, but then Alice's prediction had come true.

This time when the Sudanese and Classic humans met, the New Ebola virus could not infect the new hosts. The Sudanese still had it, but the Classic humans seemed immune to it. Further testing revealed that New Ebola had evolved so closely with the Sudanese, who were evolving away from Classic humans, that it could no longer jump the species boundary. This was big news, because it was the first indication of an actual species boundary between the two sister taxa. The Sudanese were a bona fide species now.

The Sudanese started out with larger heads, higher intelligence, and a virus, but now after half a century in isolation, there were more differences between the two species. The Sudanese were taller and leaner with ebony skin, brown eyes, and hair that ranged anywhere between medium brown and black. Their hair was shorter and they had less body hair and fewer differences between the sexes. The females still had breasts, but none of them had the huge knockers that were so fashionable with Classic humans. The men had strong jaws and Adam's apples, but not the facial or chest hair. And both sexes were equally large and strong.

Classis humans had changed too, but in other ways. They had continued to increase their lifespans, although the same was true of the Sudanese. On average they had grown lighter in skin tone, although a big part of that was that the darker races were transformed into the Sudanese. There were still African Americans and people who traced their ancestry back to Africa in the time before the Sudanese, but they had mixed so thoroughly with the other races that they were typically a medium tan color.

Hair color enjoyed a larger variation in Classic humans, ranging from pale blond, like Peter's, to black, like Alice's. Eye color too was more variable, as was skin color, but in a lot of ways there was less variation in the Classic humans. When one looked at their genetic variation there was far less than that seen in the Sudanese, except when it came to genetic diseases. It seemed that the Sudanese got all of the neutral variation, whereas the Classic humans kept all of the genetic diseases, despite their best efforts to modify the diseases out of their germ lines.

Every generation new diseases were spliced away and every generation new ones would pop up. The situation was so bad that scientists were now considering that it was a problem in the fidelity of the DNA polymerase, the enzyme that replicates DNA. Apparently removing selection on lethal mutations just led to the increased production of lethal mutations. The Sudanese never messed with their genetic material, because they were evolving naturally. They were naturally free of most genetic diseases and living to three hundred.

Peter and I watched the broadcast attentively with my three children and his two hosts. The reporters were saying that India had officially fallen and since no new cases of New Ebola in Classic humans had occurred in the last ten years, the United Nations was not willing to send more troops in to liberate the Indians. Instead, the Indians would be left to the Sudanese and that is when the news switched over to the President of Sudan as he began his speech.

"This war is over and victory has come to my people once again," the President of Sudan announced in his thick Sudanese accent. Like all Sudanese, he was a tall, thin dark skinned man with an abnormally large head. His head was so large it looked like the weight of it might break his neck. Either his head was larger than typical of the large headed Sudanese, or the Sudanese were still evolving even larger heads, which might explain the preposterously thick neck. His neck was a huge trunk of a neck that supported that giant head and merged with his slender chest in a way that could only be described as weird, or possibly odd.

"Last night I saw him giving a completely different speech to his own people, right before this one. This one's specifically for the Classics," Scryan said during a pause in the speech due to the clapping of the audience. "And that clapping is from a machine, because no one's there, except the reporters. It's all propaganda"

"My people never wanted such a war in the first place, but now that we've spent centuries fighting it, we cannot go back. Many things have changed in this time. We've changed and the Earth has changed. India is no longer some inconsequential country on a runaway continental plate slamming into Asia. Now it's moving south, back into the southern hemisphere, on a course to collide with Australia in a few million years. The sea between India and China is narrow now, but it will grow and be the separator between our two species.

"We will not genocide _Homo sapiens_, like they would do to us. We like to think ourselves better than that, but we cannot simply look the other way and leave India to restart the terror. India has started one too many a war and we are going to end it here and now. Our substantial air force will be utilized in relocating the Indian people elsewhere, so that we do not have to kill them. We would encourage the Northern Nations of Classics to volunteer to receive these displaced peoples.

"If no countries volunteer, the Indian people will be dropped off in China, for several reasons. One, China is one of the closest countries and it's the only neighboring country large enough to support the extra five billion people. Secondly, India and China have been known allies for a millennium now and they should be happy to accept refugees from their fallen comrades. If they were to do the right thing, they would even give the Indians a small spit of desolate land to occupy, although we do hope that the Indians would learn their lesson and not use said possible land to start another war. That would end in the same way with my army seizing any misappropriated lands.

"Thirdly, China has been an equal aggressor in this war. India was chosen as the home front because it was closer and drifting closer to home every day. If China was closer, we would have chosen it to invade. We would have chosen Brazil, but we did not want to be responsible for cleaning up that heap of wasteland." He paused here, leaving time for everyone to laugh at his joke, because it was well known that Brazil had fallen hard. They had put all of their resources into the war and destroyed their country from within.

"Relocating five billion refugees to China will be the Chinese's punishment for their role in this war. And finally, the Indians will have to be moved, because we, the Sudanese, need the land. Our species has been under constant attack during our recent evolution. We are growing and we think it's only fair that we seize this land as repayment for all of the wars India has started. India has long been warning that if they fell, all of the other southern countries would be next and I think that it's about time we take their suggestion.

"It has not escaped our attention that every non-Sudanese country in the southern hemisphere has been sending troops to the front in India. They have funded the war with their money and sent weapons of mass destruction to our enemy in addition to providing guns and ammunition. Most importantly they have sent soldiers. Your entire species is guilty, but none of you more so than our closest neighbors. Again, we would take Brazil right now if it were not such a mess.

"It is not our goal to destroy your species, but to relocate you away from us, so that we are not in constant conflict. We never wanted to be responsible for genocide, so we waited to attack, move in, and seize land. But the time has come for us to move forward, because you are now immune to our virus. The one thing you feared is the one thing that has spared you all of these centuries. Now that it's not an issue, we will not hesitate to occupy any country that attacks us.

"We will start with India and occupy it as we have occupied Antarctica." Antarctica was also moving; it had been moving north for millennia. It had crashed into the tip of South Africa and then continued on a northern trajectory, so that it also crashed into Angola. And as the continent rose into habitable areas of the globe, the Sudanese had colonized it. There had been some uproar at the time that the Sudanese were spreading and breaking a United Nations approved treaty from the nineteen hundreds, but it was good clean land and in Sudanese territory, so it was understandable that the Sudanese would want it. And the Sudanese had the military to defend their new acquisition while they colonized it, so there never was any question as to who the newly defrosted continent belonged too.

"It seems inevitable that we would have to seize Australia too, because they are so near. Australia has been the second biggest supporter of the Indians behind the Chinese, so they are top on our radar. Let me assure you that if they make one move to attack us, we will fight back. We will seize their land and relocate their people, just as we are doing now to India. But, we will not do so until they make the first move. Their downfall will be on them, not us. We will be innocent of any wrong-doing in this war. We will not have any blood on our hands or genocides to spoil our species' reputation, as you have on and against yours.

"We have no plans of seizing South America or any of the other northern masses of land. We hope that we can split the planet evenly between our two species. We will stay below the equator and leave the other side of the planet to your species. Part of South America is still in our territory, but we have every confidence that it will continue on its northern trajectory and clear our half of the globe. Therefore we will leave it to you and the South American people can fear no more from us than to receive billions of refugees should they misbehave."

Like the other continents, South America had been on the move in recent years. There was a sudden increase in sub-crustal magma flow associated with the flipping of the magnetic poles, which caused a changed in the magma currents and was therefore responsible for the rapid movement of the Earth's plates. The continents were moving faster than before, although it was still at a rate of mere feet a year. Scientists had hypothesized that if the plates kept on their current trajectories, we would have to redefine the boundary between east and west. Already the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans had merged into one great ocean, called the World Ocean. There would soon be one land mass in the north, from Europe in the west to South America and Greenland in the east, and a second in the south, from Australia in the west to Africa in the East.

South America was now east of North America, south of Greenland, west of Europe, and north of Antarctica, with North America rotating clockwise and being smashed between Eurasia and South America. North America was now so far west that the Hawaiian Islands were located where the Philippines used to be. Alaska had collided with Russia and had gone north of it, so that it stuck out into the Arctic sea. And California Island was preparing to smash into Japan.

Africa had moved a bit south, breaking its tentative land connection to the Middle East, but mostly it had moved west, pushing Antarctica west with it, and forcing South America even further north. Indonesia had moved south, crashing into New Guinea, and thanks to the merger, it was currently being swept east right along with New Guinea and Australia. Australia and New Guinea were on a collision course with Antarctica and India. It was all great fun to witness first hand.

The President of Sudan continued on into a speech about how he hoped the two species would come to live in peace and harmony in the future and that the Classic humans would stop attacking them. He seemed to feel that his people shared no responsibility for the endless war and bloodshed that had plagued this planet for hundreds years. It was true that they had not started it, but they had always finished it.

"Do you think it's really over Dad?" Vinutha asked Peter, pausing the broadcast.

"It's the beginning of the end, but it'll take years to clear out five billion people," Peter replied.

"Well I'm just glad that the Indians'll be allowed to live after all that they've done," Nilay said.

"I'm glad the whole New Ebola thing is over. Now no other people will have to be infected or lose their biological parents," Vinutha said, referring to what had happened to her and Nilay when the Sudanese had landed in their city eighty years ago.

"Yes, that is a good thing," Peter replied.

"Do you think America or Canada will take any of the refugees?" Scryan asked still on my lap.

"I hope so. Neither one has been on board with the war for a long time, but everyone should step up and help out. Everyone should take a million refugees or two, although I do agree that China should take most of them. But even if China only takes four billion, that still leaves a thousand million refugees for the rest of the world," I replied.

Jackson, Alice, and Charlotte came home then with several armfuls of shopping bags. My family went back to our ranch to avoid the mayhem that was bound to ensue once Peter and Charlotte realize that Alice had just convinced them to buy a bunch of stuff that they do not need yet and will not have room for until their hosts die. And also we went home to fill Jackson and Alice in on what they had missed on the news. Alice had already seen the gist of it, but Jackson had not.

"Can you believe the speciation happened so fast?" Ashley asked once we finished watching the replay on the wall film at our house. "There was only one species of humans when we were kids, and now we aren't even grown and there are two."  
>"Yes, evolution can work very quickly if the setting's right," Allison replied.<p>

"It's just like what happened the last time," Jackson added.

"Tell us 'Son," Scryan requested. Everyone loved Jackson's stories.

"Well when what Ali calls _Homo ergaster _split from _Homo erectus_, it was just like what is happening now with Classics and Sudanese humans," Jackson replied.

"Technically that was not the last split in the _Homo_ line, not even when you factor out our side and the split between vampires and shifters. On their side of the divide, the most recent split was between _Homo erectus_ and the hobbits, which happened just sixty thousand years ago in the Philippines. And even the split between Classics and Neanderthals was more recent," Allison replied.

"Yeah, but neither of those cases is identical to what's happening now. With both of those cases they left their mother continent and then adapted to the new climate and speciated, right?" Jackson asked Allison. He was getting pretty good at all of this science after spending over a thousand years with his sister.

"Yes, your example's clearly closer to what's happening now, I'm just pointing out that it's not the most recent speciation," Allison replied.

"Just tell the story already 'Son," Ashley said.

"Okay, so when _Homo erectus _left Africa, it was part of the dominant hominid group on the planet, which was _Home ergaster_. When they started out, they were one species and that one species covered all of Eurasia and Africa. That's just like what happened this time, with _Homo sapiens_ leaving Africa. When they left, they were identical to what would later become _Homo sudaniensis_, and they were all one species. But as time wore on, the species that left Africa, erectus and Classics, didn't change, while the one that stayed in Africa evolved.

"With the erectus example, ergaster eventually evolved into Classics, who wiped out erectus when they came back in contact with each other. I was just thinking that history was bound to repeat itself and eventually the Sudanese, or their descendants, will wipe out the Classics," Jackson finished.

"It doesn't necessarily have to be like that. They could learn to live in peace, like the Sudanese want. They don't want to genocide the other species," Allison replied.

"Yeah, but the Classics won't give them a choice. They're very territorial and aggressive. If they find a way to fight back, they will, and they'll push the issue until the Sudanese are left with no choice but to annihilate the barbaric species," Jackson said.

"What do you see Scry?" Allison asked, turning to her other brother.

"I see them coexisting," Scryan answered. That was always his answer whenever he was asked this question. "But you know I can't see eons ahead. Didn't it take thousands of years for the Classics to wipe out the other humans?"

"Yeah," both Jackson and Allison answered simultaneously.

"I still think there's hope for the Classics yet, after all they're feeding on different types of food now, so they aren't in direct competition for resources outside of land, water, and air. The Classics are eating mostly grains, arthropods, and seaweed, because of their severe overcrowding, but the Sudanese are eating more meats and vegetables and far less fat," Allison said.

"Yeah, you can see the difference just by looking at them: the Classics are short, pudgy, and out of shape, while the Sudanese are tall, lean, and muscular," Ashley added.

"And the Classics have been expanding into the ocean by building islands and floating houses for hundreds of years, so their making their own land," Jackson added.

"And their Mars colony is a success and the Sudanese want nothing to do with it, so Classics will at least remain on Mars," Allison said.

"Please, the Mars colony has been nothing but a bad joke from the beginning," Jackson replied. "One disaster after another; it's no wonder the Sudanese want to stay Earth-bound."

"But it's been doing better lately and I see it taking off in the next few hundred years. And my science teacher at Pizza Hut Junior High said that Canada plans to build arch ships and seed Earth-like planets in neighboring star systems with humans and other life-forms in the near future,"

"And did you see it Scry?" Ashley asked. She was the only one of the kids who had not gone to school, so she had missed out on a lot of the things the other kids had learned about humans.

"No, I couldn't see anything other than Mars," he replied.

"It's just talk now. It'll take them at least a hundred years to develop the technology at the rate they're going. And then it'll take thousands of years for the slower than light ships to travel through space, because they don't know how to open wormholes," Allison replied.

"Won't all the humans and stuff die if it takes that long?" Ashley asked.

"No, because that length of time won't have passed on the ship. The faster you travel, the slower time moves, so far less than a thousand years will pass for them, but it all depends on the speed. If the Canadians are smart, they'll wait until less than a hundred years passes for the passengers on the ship before they even try it. And they won't be able to terraform a planet that far away yet, so that greatly reduces their options. They're gonna have to fly a lot farther to find a planet with perfect conditions for sustaining Earthlings, but isn't already inhabited by its own indigenous life," Allison said.

"Why can't they go to a planet that already has life on it? I know you said that there are plenty in the area, just not with sentient beings," Scryan said. "It'll be easier to establish a colony if there are already plants and bacteria there."

"Because evolution doesn't run the same way twice, even if selection is the same. There are an infinite number of possible solutions to many problems in life and a different planet is gonna have different life-forms with different solutions. They don't even use the same four bases and twenty amino acids in their DNA and proteins," Allison answered. "Humans won't be able to digest it and they'll starve."

"But all life has DNA, proteins, and cells, right?" Ashley asked.

"No. All life has a genome composed of nucleic acids, but there are a great many types independently evolved. And all life has a phenotype derived from the genome, but this isn't always protein. It can also be RNA on Earth and there are a number of other derived macromolecules on other planets that are used. And the same thing goes for cells, because not even on Earth are life-forms limited to cells; we have viruses too," Allison answered.

"Let's go frighten the neighbor's cattle and start a stampede," Jackson suggested, getting bored of this conversation and itching to get outside and play.

Our nearest neighbors were ten miles away and they owned a large ranch and a great big heard of cattle. "'Son, what did I say about being a menace to the humans?" I asked.

"Not to do it, because it'll call attention to us and we need to blend in," he grumbled.

"Exactly. Now why don't you kids go work on your subterranean clubhouse and that network of underground tunnels you wanted to use for your games?" I asked, giving the kids a better alternative.

They could play above ground too, but it was more fun to challenge their excellent eye sight by playing in the dark.

"Come on, let's go," Jackson said leading his siblings out the door to play and leaving me alone with Alice for the first time in days.

"How was shopping?" I whispered seductively into her ear in between nipping at her neck. The kids would not be gone more than a few hours, so we would have to be quick. Thus I was already forcing lust, need, and love onto her.

"I would've come home earlier if you'd planned on greeting me like this," she replied, responding quickly to my manipulations and oozing sexual desire and hope.

"I blame the mood swings on the parity," I joked smiling against her mouth as I pressed mine against it. Given the close contact, my words were a little muffled, but she picked them up just the same.

"This is how you got knocked up in the first place, Major Whitlock," she replied pushing me into the room without breaking the contact between our bodies.

* * *

><p>Author's note:<p>

Jasper's story is my favorite of the three. What do you think so far?


	4. Book1 Carlisle ch2

Carlisle POV:

Book 1- Carlisle- chapter 2

In the days following the war I found myself very busy dealing with matters of state; everyone in my extended family was. We had a room full of eggs waiting to be germinated and their parents wanted to rush off to find hosts, but instead I asked them to have patience. I charged everyone with important roles in the new government and urged them to choose their hosts wisely, because we needed to set an example for the other vampires to follow.

Other vampires were already flaunting the secret before the Volturi fell and the last thing we needed was for the humans to find out that we were parasitizing them with our eggs. The Cullen Volturi War had lasted for over two hundred years and during that time, the rest of the vampire world had continued on. Vampires were turned, drank humans, and turned humans themselves, except that big brother was no longer watching their every move, because the Volturi were otherwise engaged.

Fighting was not constant during those two hundred years, but we were always the Volturi's number one priority and foremost on their minds. There were almost always spare Guard members available to send out at a moment's notice if a vampire stepped out of bounds, but their forces were stretched thin and every vampire alive knew it. The power of the Volturi was diminished by our war, creating an opportunity for open rebellion, which a great many vampires took advantage of, especially after the helicopter battle.

The Volturi's numbers were greatly reduced after the Kamikaze attack and they were decimated after the helicopter battle, even though their core members maintained a presence of power in Volterra until the hydrogen bomb was dropped. The Romanians and Egyptians were not the only covens who wished to challenge the Volturi's reign and they thought to do so by spreading thin what little forces were left. The Antarctic, Indonesian, and South African covens were particularly bad, because their activities had been noticed by the humans.

And so just days after the hydrogen bomb was dropped on Volterra, I led an expedition to first Indonesia, then South Africa, and finally Antarctica. I took Peter, Kate, Garrett, Vladimir, and Stefan with me. I spoke with their coven leaders and informed them that the war was over, we were the winners, and that I would personally see to the enforcement of our laws. All the old laws still stood, with the addition of several extra pertaining to eggs, hosts, and children.

The Indonesian and South African covens agreed readily and vowed to stop breaking the laws if I would agree to spare them and give them another chance, which I did. Then I informed them of our intentions to create a vampire democracy and asked them to journey to our island to meet with me again and see the children for themselves. And of course I spent a great deal of time telling them about the children and the story of how we learned the secret of the eggs.

This was the first time anyone off of Cullen Island was told about the eggs, so I had a lot of explaining to do. The other vampires did not believe me at first, not even when I showed them pictures of the children, because they thought that the photos were doctored or of immortal children. But it did not matter if they believed, just as long as they kept the secret and complied with the new laws. They would believe soon enough when they implanted eggs of their own into hosts and when they encounter vampire children for the first time.

The first two expeditions went more smoothly than I thought, mostly because they were afraid of us. I was the leader of the coven that had taken down the Volturi. I was known to control a larger and more powerful coven than the Volturi had, and there was a rumor going around that my extended family was really my dedicated and loyal guard. Even the fact that we were in alliance with the shape-shifters and friendly with the werewolves was intimidating, because these creatures were our mortal enemies.

Everything went well until we hit a snag when we arrived in Antarctica and met the coven with three immortal children. I was asking that they obey our laws and destroy their own children and like all creators of immortal children, they were willing to fight to the death to protect their loved ones and I could not even find it in my heart to blame them. I looked at those immortal children and was reminded so much of my own children. I would have agreed that they could live, but then these children were different from pureblood children in that they could not grow, mature, or learn to control their thirst and they could never be trusted to keep the secret.

The Antarctic coven and I came to an impasse as we contemplated what to do about the situation. I did not want to be the domineering monocracy that Aro and his Volturi brothers had been, but I did not know what to do about the immortal children and I hated to kill any creature, no matter how dangerous. All life is sacred, even that of these children. They did not ask to be made into monsters and they were not born that way.

I asked the leader of the Antarctic coven to come up with a solution that the rest of us could live with and I waited there for a week before he came back with an answer for me. He had conferred with his fellow coven members and they had agreed that their immortal children should not be considered a threat as long as they eliminated all contact between the children and humans. They would move to the South Pole, which was now covered by southern Antarctica and was the furthest place on Earth from humans. They would keep their children secluded there and bring humans in for them to drink, but the children themselves would not be let loose again.

It was a hard decision, but I agreed that it was the only one that would work for everyone. The Antarctic coven promised to abide by this plan and that I would never again here news reports from the humans about them. They also promised not to create anymore immortal children and so I shook their hands and left having come to a peaceful solution. I was still concerned about how other vampires would react, whether they follow in the Antarctic coven's footsteps or lead an attack against them, but I would just have to deal with those possibilities when the time comes.

And so we boarded our helicopter and made the journey back to Cullen Island. When we arrived home after a successful mission, I found myself inundated with more matters of state that had piled up while I was away. Alice had been in charge in my absence and she had a full report for me.

"Most importantly," Alice said, "to avoid a civil war, we need to find enough hosts for everyone, get these eggs implanted already, and send the extended family back out into the world with their hosts. We need to get the word out to the lay vampire that the stones are really eggs and inform them of the proper implantation procedure. This island is the best place to do that, so we should set up an education and implantation center.

"But the problem is that I'm having trouble motivating people with all of the grieving going on. I need the center to be built, but Esme won't come out of Carl's room and when she's not in his room, she's lying in your bed. I need help choosing appropriate hosts, but Emmett and Rosalie won't get out bed. Fred and Eleazar are curled up in balls on the tundra. Siobhan's lost the will to live. Zafrina and Fernando bailed and went back to the Amazon to be with their extended coven. And the hybrids took off back to La Push, because Leah's pregnant, again.

"The only people I have helping me are Jasper, Bella, Charlotte, Sean, Maggie, and Edward. Bella and Jasper are on kid detail. Sean and Maggie are running the blood manufacturing facility. And Charlotte is out looking for hosts all on her own, but I just sent Edward to go help her. Now that you all are back, I need Peter to join Charlotte and Edward and bring us back some hosts. I need Kate and Garrett to go find Fred, Eleazar, and Siobhan and bring them back here and talk some sense into them. And Vladimir and Stefan can help out at the blood manufacturing facility.

"But mostly, I need you to bring Esme around. She needs a purpose to go on, so you need to get Aiden and Adriel to tell her how much they love her and need her, instead of just laying on your bed with her. And if she has something to do, she won't keep moping around. We need that implantation center, but that won't get her out of bed; putting her in charge of egg distribution will. Those eggs are babies and someone needs to make sure the correct egg gets back to the correct parents. Once you talk her into doing that, she'll realize that someone also needs to see that the parents know how to implant the eggs properly. From there she'll see that we need the facility and begin construction," Alice finished.

"Okay, so I need to work on Esme and you seem to have the rest under control," I replied, giving her a quick hug. "Thank you Alice. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Curl up in a ball like the rest of 'em," Alice answered. "Now go."

Alice did not have to tell me twice, so I took off to find my wife. I heard the sound of breathing coming from my bedroom, so I followed it to find my wife and two remaining sons lying on my bed. Adriel and Aiden jumped up to greet me, but Esme did not move.

"Daddy!" Adriel cried, throwing himself into my open arms.

"Dad, you're back!" Aiden added, taking his brother's place just as soon as Adriel moved aside.

"Hello Boys, I missed you. How's your mom?" I asked.

"She just lays there," Aiden answered.

"But she's been watching the two of you," I replied.

"We've been watching ourselves when we're not at school," Adriel said. "I can't believe we've still gotta go to school when we're in the middle of the biggest vampire revolution within our lifetime."

"I've been trying to help by getting blood for me and Adriel and we've been behaving and not giving Mom any trouble," Aiden added.

"Has she moved at all since I've been gone?" I asked, but instead of answering me, my boys just looked at each other and shrugged.

"Well then I'm going to need your help getting through to your Mom. You know she loves both of you very much; she's just heartbroken over Carl right now," I said.

"We all are," Aiden replied.

"We'll help Dad," Adriel added. "What do we have to do?"

"Well I've been gone a week, so the first thing we need to do is get her to drink something. Has she had any blood since I left?" I asked and the boys shook their heads. I knew the answer to that before I asked it, but I wanted to be sure. "Okay. Do you think we should get her an animal or synthetic?"

"Synthetic," "Pouch," Aiden and Adriel answered simultaneously.

"Synthetic it is. Let's go to the kitchen and check our supplies," I said taking their hands and leading them down the stairs.

When we arrived at the refrigerator, I discovered that we were down to our last two units, so I took the boys over to the blood manufacturing facility to get more. We restocked the refrigerator and warmed up a unit for each of us. Then armed with freshly warmed delicious blood, I headed upstairs to greet my wife.

"Esme, I'm home. I missed you so much," I said sitting next to her on the bed. "I brought you some blood."

Esme did not move or respond, so I looked pointedly at each of my boys and then back at their mother. Aiden must have understood what I meant, because he said, "Mom, Adriel and I helped Dad make the blood. Will you drink it for us?"

"Yeah Mom, we love you," Adriel added.

Esme looked at our boys, but did not take the blood from me, so I leaned in and whispered in her ear, "You're scaring them honey. They lost their brother and now they think they're going to lose you too. Drink it for them."

This time Esme nodded, sat up, and took the blood. She looked up at me questioningly and I nodded in encouragement. Then she looked at each of the boys; they nodded too and held up their own units of blood. Adriel pressed his lips to the lip of the plastic pouch and took a sip and Esme and Aiden copied him. Grateful that Esme was finally drinking something, I joined in and drank my unit as well.

When the blood was gone, Aiden and Adriel grabbed the empty pouches and took them to the trash for us, leaving me alone with my wife for the first time in weeks. "Dear, I was talking to Alice today. She said we need someone to distribute the eggs back to their parents. It's very important that the right egg gets to the right parents, but the tricky part is going to be what to do with all the orphaned eggs. Just think about all those eggs that lost their parents in the war," I said, trying to play on her sympathies.

"All those poor eggs," Esme replied, finally speaking.

I had not heard her say anything unrelated to her grief over Carl's death since the helicopter battle. I was so happy to hear her voice again that I scooped her up into my arms and kissed her on the top of her head. "I know. If only one parent died, it's obvious who to give the orphaned eggs to, but if both are dead…someone has to make sure that the eggs go to good families and preferably vampires who were friends with the parents. There are just so many orphaned eggs: Tanya and Jason's eggs, Huilen and Jose's eggs, Kachiri and Enrique's eggs, Senna and Josue's eggs, David and Caroline's eggs, Benjamin and Tia's eggs, and Charles and Makenna's eggs. They'll need good homes."

"Alright, I'll do it. But where do I start?" she asked me, looking up at me with her big golden eyes.

"Start by contacting their covens. Try to put eggs with their parents' covens first and we'll go from there. A lot of those eggs belong to the Amazonian coven and the only two surviving members left already without taking any of their eggs. Maybe you can call Zafrina and see if you can convince her to come back and get some of the eggs," I said holding out my phone to my wife.

Esme took the phone, but did not move to call anyone right away. "You can do this; for the children," I encouraged her.

She did not smile back, as she would have done before Carl's death, but she activated the 3-dimensional projected display, tapped the contacts icon, and scrolled down to Zafrina's name, before tapping send.

"Hello, Zafrina? It's Esme Cullen," she said. Zafrina must have had a lot to say, because Esme paused for a long time before speaking again. "I understand. Of course you would want to tell the others what had happened in person. But you and Fernando left your eggs here and I was hoping you'd adopt some of the other eggs from your coven members."

There was another long pause before Esme said, "Thank you so much Zafrina. I'll call you when the hosts are ready." She deactivated the phone and looked up at me. "She said Nahuel's oldest half-sister and her husband would take Huilen and Jose's eggs. Enrique's brother Thiago and his wife Uiara want Enrique and Kachiri's eggs. And Zafrina and Fernando will take Senna and Josue's eggs in addition to their own. I have to call them when the hosts are ready for implantation and they'll come get them."

"You did it! You found homes for all of the Amazonian eggs so quickly! I'm so proud of you," I said kissing her lightly on the lips, but she did not kiss me back. "What's wrong sweetheart? You should be happy that you just found homes for all of those eggs!"

"But what if they aren't good parents? What if the hosts aren't taken care of or the babies aren't fed regularly when they're hatched?" she asked concerned.

"Well you'll just have to look into their backgrounds and make sure they're all good people. And you can give everyone a crash course on eggs, hosts, and babies when they get here," I said thinking back to what Alice had said. Maybe this assignment would keep my wife so busy that she really would be unable to dwell on our loss. Maybe she would come out of her funk. Maybe I would get my wife back and my children would get their mother back.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I need names for Benjamin and Tia's hosts. Right now I'm calling them Benjamin and Tia's hosts…Can any of you help me out?<p> 


	5. Book3 Jasper ch2

Book 3- Jasper- Chapter 2

Jasper's POV:

We stayed with Peter and Charlotte and their two hosts in Houston for a year before it happened. I was standing in our living room talking with Alice and our four children when a swirling infrared colored hole opened up in front of me. I heard the collective gasps from my family at the same moment I heard Allison's warning, "Dad, watch out!"

I took a step back, away from the hole, just as I heard Alice's voice ring out clear as bells. "Jazz, you've disappeared!"

She said it before I actually disappeared physically, but I did not have time to respond to her or even to process what she said before I was falling back into the swirling ultraviolet colored hole behind me. I had been unaware of the hole behind me, but it seemed that I fell into it as I backed away from the hole in front of me.

"Dad, you're stuck in time," Scryan said back in reality. His voice sounded distant and echoed, as if I were only receiving the sound waves from a great distance away. And my perfect vampiric vision was warped, distorted, and tinted ultraviolet as I gazed out of my hole at my family. "Eliza warned me that this would happen. Dad, if you can hear me, this is really important: don't breathe while you're in there. Don't talk either. Don't let out your air, because of the vacuum in the wormhole."

Hmm, a wormhole. Maybe I was in a wormhole.

"Dad's in a wormhole?" Jackson asked with shock and confusion.

"You knew and didn't warn him!" Ashley screamed at Scryan, who fell to the floor withering in pain.

"Ashley, stop hurting your brother!" Alice ordered.

"Cool! Dad, can you hear us inside the wormhole?" Allison asked excitedly when Scryan stopped screaming. He was still on the ground gasping for air, but he was no longer in emotional pain.

"Don't talk," Scryan whispered to me in between pants of breath.

I wanted to find a way out of this trap and back to my family and I wanted to answer Allison, but I also made sure to heed Scryan's warning, because I was clearly in a vacuum. I had never been in a vacuum before, but there was no doubting what my son had said, because I could feel the vacuum on my skin. Normally I am surrounded by millions of air molecules that constantly bombard my skin, creating a light sense of pressure. I had never noticed this pressure before, but now that it was removed, my skin felt tingly.

Given the circumstances, holding my breath seemed like a good idea, because I had no means of replenishing the air in my lungs. Holding my vomit back was a good idea too, because puking would make a mess in this confined space and I had no way of cleaning up such a mess. But alas, vomiting was quickly become more and more likely, because my stomach was flipping, twisting, turning, and tying itself in knots from the loss of equilibrium associated with falling through the wormhole.

As far as I could remember I had only felt like this twice before and that was when I had disgorged Allison and Scryan's eggs. This fact worried me, because my twins were still twenty years too early to be disgorged and I did not want to risk a premature disgorging. And even if only blood came up, I had no means of replenishing the blood in my stomach and it was critical that there was enough blood in there for my eggs to use in their development. So I held my breath and bit back the rising vomit.

"How did Eliza know about this?" Jackson asked as I tried to reach out to him, because he was closest to where I was stuck. The wormhole bent to extend around where I was pushing my fingers out through the matrix of the fabric of space-time, but it did not break and I remained trapped.

"She saw it in Kair and Kare's thoughts," Scryan answered. As he spoke, I tried to force my entire body through the ultraviolet web, but it resisted my every step and shifted along with me.

"And how long has she known about this?" Ashley asked and the sound of her voice gave me an idea. I could not touch them, because of the wormhole, and I could not speak, because of the vacuum, but maybe I could find another way to communicate with my family. She was much further away than Jackson, but my empathy works over short distances, so I tried it. I called out to Ashley with waves of mischievousness, playfulness, and happiness, hoping and pleading that she would be able to feel me. She did not respond.

"Since that first day we saw them after the helicopter battle," Scryan answered.

"How long have you personally known?" Jackson asked.

"Eliza told me about it the day Kare and Kair came to live with us," Scryan replied.

"And why didn't you warn Dad?" Allison asked.

"The twins already warned him and there was never anything we could do, because it was going to happen no matter what," Scryan replied.

"Well if we had known, he could've been prepared. We could've sent blood with him," Allison retorted.

"Why aren't Kair and Kare here to fix this?" Jackson asked and I tried one last time to reach out and touch him. It did not work any better than my previous attempts, so I gave up and decided just to sit back and listen for a while. I would find a way out of here eventually.

"The twins can't visit us here in Houston unless they're already in Houston in their own time," Alice said, speaking up for the first time in several minutes. "And stop blaming all of this on Scry, because he's just the messenger. Dad's gone for two seconds and y'all start bickering amongst yourselves. See, this is why I told him it was a bad idea to have more babies."

A round of, "Sorry Mom," went around the room, as each of my children apologized to my wife looking duly ashamed.

"We all promised Dad that we'd behave and help out more so that he can concentrate on spending time with the babies when they emerge. I think this is a good time to show him that we can do it." Jackson spoke to his siblings with firm conviction and I was never more proud of him than I was in that moment.

Murmurs of agreement went around the room and Allison asked, "But where _is_ Dad? If we're gonna act like grown-ups, then we need a plan. We need to figure out where exactly Dad went and how we're gonna get him back."

"Mom, can you see when Kair and Kare are coming back?" Ashley asked Alice. "We need to ask them about what happened. We need to find out what they know."

"No, I can't see a visit, but then I can never see them until a few seconds before they're here. Can you Scry?"

"I can normally see them a few minutes before they arrive, because there's a pair of blind-spots in my vision. But no, I can't see them now either. Let's call Eliza and ask her what she knows," Scryan suggested.

"That's your answer to everything! We might as well have just taken her along with us when we moved here, you talk to her so much," Ashley whined.

"That's enough Ash," Alice reprimanded.

"Scry's right, we need to call Eliza," Allison added.

Alice motioned for Scryan to go on, so he activated his cell and dialed the number.

"Hey Eliza. My dad just fell into the wormhole, why didn't you warn us that today was the day?" Scryan spoke into the phone. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the answer, but he ignored them, making murmuring sounds as he listened into the phone. "My family wants to listen in, so can I put you on speaker?"

Eliza must have agreed, because Scryan put her on speaker phone and I began to hear her voice. "I was just telling Scry that Kare and Kair didn't know the date that Uncle Jasper would fall through. They know the days in their own time that they went to visit him in the wormhole, but they can't know the date they're visiting. It's something about quantum mechanics and the date being probabilistic. Adriel understands it better than I do."

"Adriel knew too? Did everyone else but me know?" Ashley asked.

"No, he didn't know, but he talked to the twins plenty of times when we were all going to school together. That's how their time-traveling works in general," Eliza replied.

"How?" asked Allison.

"I'm not sure exactly, but it's something about the probability that an event will take place on a certain date. Uncle Jasper falling into the wormhole was inevitable, but it's not confined to a specific date in time. It's just as likely that he fell into the hole yesterday or tomorrow as it is that he fell in today," Eliza answered.

"That doesn't make sense: he fell in today, we just told you that," Jackson replied.

"He fell in today in this reality, but since today is only one of many days he could've fallen in, the twins can't tell the date."

"Why don't we just say the date? I'll just tell them that it's November third, thirty-two twenty-eight next time I see them and then they can come back and alter the timeline," Alice said.

"That's not how it works, because in the reality where this happens tomorrow, they'll hear you say it's the fourth. So what they really hear is a probabilistic date anytime during the last thirty years of their parity. Reality doesn't pick the date until it happens and once it happens, the timeline is set and can't be changed," Eliza said.

"That's not how the universe works, that's just how humans thought it worked last millennium," Allison said. "They were just confused because they didn't understand the duel nature of subatomic particles. Now that they do, everyone knows that there is only one reality and that all of the other possible realities don't in fact exist in parallel universes. There is such a thing as parallel universes, but not in the sense that anything in this universe is mirrored in another. It just doesn't work that way."

"Well I never had a chance to read future you's mind, so all I've got to go on is what Kair and Kare thought and their memories of things they've been told," Eliza replied.

"Well I'm going to tell them this in the future, so didn't you see this in their minds?" asked Allison.

"Yeah, I did, but I also saw Uncle Jasper in the future telling them not to tell anyone too much information about what'll happen before it happens, especially with respect to this situation. If you alter the timeline in any way, then Kair and Kare will cease to exist," Eliza revealed. "I lied for them."

"Well why aren't they here when we need them?" Scryan asked rhetorically.

"They told us that before, on the day they came to live with us," Allison said. "They're blocked out by their younger selves. The hole is only meant to be big enough for the two of them and Dad's a pretty big guy. Between him and the two babies from the past- well our future, but future Kair and Kare's past- the tunnel's blocked and they can't get through."

"Well how do we get him out?" Allison asked.

"You don't. Just wait and Kare and Kair, as babies, will rescue him," Eliza said.

"When will he be rescued and come back?" Alice asked.

"Sorry, the twins thought it was important not to say, but he does come back," Eliza answered.

"Is he alright when he comes back? Are the twins alright?" Alice asked concerned and with fear in her voice.

"All three survive with no permanent damage."

"What's that mean? Are they hurt?" Alice asked desperately.

"Not really. The twins seemed to think Uncle Jasper just feels a little nauseous from all of the time travel," Eliza explained.

A little nauseous was an understatement; my stomach was still unsettled by the complete and utter lack of gravity and I had been unconsciously holding my stomach. But I did not have long to dwell on it, because a flash of infrared light appeared. The light slowly faded, but did not disappear; instead it joined and melded with the ultraviolet of the fabric of space-time, creating white light in the middle, but this light was not the same shade of white produced by the sun, because the underlying spectra were different. This light was harsh and only lasted for about a foot, before giving way to infrared with slivers of ultraviolet in front of me, and ultraviolet with slivers of infrared behind me.

A set of vampiric twins appeared at the end of the infrared side and crawled towards me. They met me in the middle, where the light was white, and stopped at my feet. They sat up with their legs tucked into the fetal position and one arm wrapped around them, with the other arm raised into the air. I had seen this signal enough times from my other four children as babies to know that it meant, "Up," so I scooped one child up in each arm. I nuzzled my nose into the soft blond curls of one baby before repeating the procedure with the other.

I could see the resemblance to Alice and I knew already that these babies were my daughters Kair and Kare. They looked just like the older version of themselves, except that their checks were rounder and chubbier, their hair was shorter, and there was a substantial height difference, but that was all to be expected due to the age difference. Judging by the fact that they were crawling, instead of walking, I knew that they were less than twenty-five years old.

And judging by their small size and the fact that their bodies were still curled up quite a bit, even in my arms, I would say that they were less than ten years old. Ashley was this size when she was ten, but Allison and Jackson were this size when they were five, and Scryan never was this small.

I wanted to tell my girls that I loved them and I wanted to ask them the way out, but I could do neither of those without releasing the precious air trapped in my lungs. Instead I sat down on the floor with my legs crossed and a baby in each arm and set about examining my daughters. One of them had on a purple nightgown covered in little flowers, while the other one was in a yellow nightgown with a bear. Kair's favorite color was purple and she was always picking flowers and putting them in her hair when she was older, so I wondered in the one in purple might be my Kair. Kare's favorite color was blue, not yellow, but she loves stuffed animals, so I thought the one in yellow might be Kare.

The nightgowns were very similar to gowns Alice had had made for Allison and Ashley, but what surprised me was what was wrapped around the girls' wrists. They each had a bracelet made of vampire skin leather and the two bracelets were linked by a two foot long cord made of the same material. The leather was the color of pure white marble and as strong and inflexible as stone, but it still had some give to it under my touch. It was strong enough to bind the girls together and soft enough to not slow them down when they moved, but why was it on my daughters' wrists at all?

I was familiar with vampire leather from my time with Maria and it was not the type of thing I ever imagine touching a baby. We used it to bind up prisoners while we tortured them for information and then turned those same prisoners into the next set of leather lashings. We pulled out their teeth to use as knives to slice their own skin from their bodies. When we were done with them, we burned the bodies, but kept the teeth and skin to repeat the process all over again. It was a very macabre material and not at all the type of thing one expects to find on a baby.

But even so, I could appreciate the utility of such bracelets. I could think of no other material that would hold up to the type of wear and tear experienced when dealing with our offspring. And there was a clear benefit to be gained by keeping the children together: preventing them from getting separated and stuck in time. Each one could only travel unidirectionally through time and if one ever tried to go to one time without the other, they would never be able to return. And since they were just babies without a parent who could follow them through the wormhole, the bracelets were becoming more appealing by the moment. I think I will have to find a source of vampire leather and make the bracelets myself when they are born.

I waited there holding my girls for an undefined amount of time. I was not counting the seconds and my cell had stopped working, so I had no way of knowing the time. Plus, I got the impression that time did not pass in the wormhole in the same manner that it passed in regular reality. So I have no idea how long my girls stayed, but I do remember very clearly what triggered their departure.

Little LED lights started flashing from the collar of each girl. Kair's lights were red, while Kare's lights were blue and each girl immediately looked up to me with hungry black eyes. I did not have any blood to give them, so I shrugged instead, not knowing how to communicate with them without speaking. But the girls were one step ahead of me, because they each signed the word, "Blood," and continued to look at me expectantly.

I spoke fluent sign language, but I was not sure they did. I would never know how much they knew unless I tried, so I signed back the words, "Blood have not I. Home go you."

Kare signed back, "That always say you."

"Love you," Kair signed.

I repeated Kair's sentence before placing a kiss on top of each girl's head and placing them back on the ground. They crawled away together, taking the white light with them and leaving me with only the ultraviolet. I was only alone for a moment before another set of Kair and Kares arrived. They were of similar age, but wearing different nightgowns. This time Kair had a lavender one covered in bunnies and Kare had a blue one covered in clouds, but the LED lights that called them back home were the same red and blue lights as before. When they left another set came and the process was repeated over and over again until I was beginning to feel very weak from starvation. I was never able to go as long between meals as the others and now that I was in para with twins, I needed nourishment more than ever before.

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<p>

This is my favorite chapter in this story and it's the inspiration for the banner.

There will be a lot of sign language used in this story, so I took the time to google it and discovered that it's not simply English with hands. It was derived from French and has a different sentence structure than English. I even looked up most of the words I used to make sure there were really equivalent words in sign language; if not, then the word has to be spelled out. I did my best to stay true to the sentence structure rules, and knowing them might help if you're having trouble understanding this story. If you actually speak sign language and notice an error, please help me out.

In English, we might say:

My name is Zakaira.

There are several ways to say this in sign language and the most common is:

Z-A-K-A-I-R-A name me.

But you can also repeat the subject of the sentence at the beginning and have it in there twice:

I Z-A-K-A-I-R-A name me (the word for I and me are the same and there is no my).

Most people who speak American Sign Language will also understand the Anglicized version. This is the least correct way of saying it and often used by novices:

I name Z-A-K-A-I-R-A.

And most importantly, there is no word for is, am, be, or are. If the verb is missing, then in your head fill one of these in. There wasn't much sign language in this chapter, but there will be plenty is chapters to come, so remember to refer back to this little note if you get confused.

Please review and let me know what you think!


	6. Book1 Carlisle ch3

Book 1 Carlisle Chapter 3

Carlisle POV:

Esme was not back to normal, but between her new position in charge of egg distribution and our two boys, she was coming around. Vladimir and Stefan were helping with getting the blood manufacturing facility back in tip-top order. Kate and Garrett had found Siobhan, Fred, and Eleazar and were now vampire-sitting the grieving widow and two grieving widowers. And Edward and Peter were off helping Charlotte find hosts.

That just left Rosalie and Emmett to sort out, which was why I found myself knocking on their door, fully expecting to find them in bed together. Lily and Violet, their two remaining children, were pretty much living at Edward and Bella's house since their sister Rosita died during the helicopter battle. Under normal circumstances no one would dare approach Rosalie and Emmett's house when their children were away and they were in bed together, but they had been in there since we dropped the hydrogen bomb on Volterra and were not coming out anytime soon, so I had no choice.

Before I walked into the unknown, I stopped by Bella's house to ask what to expect. She had taken the kids over there after school yesterday afternoon so that Lily and Violet could see that their parents were still alive. And of course she had hoped that seeing their daughters would get Emmett and Rosalie out of bed, but it had not and Bella had left again with the children. So according to Bella, Emmett and Rosalie had been alternating between dealing with their grief by lying in bed lifeless with tearless sobbing and wild sex.

I would be extremely irate with them for using sex to deal with their grief but I knew that they were trying to conceive again. It was not the sex that was helping them grieve, but the promise of another child to replace the one they had lost. So it was with both trepidation and understanding that I knocked upon their front door hoping that they were currently grieving by lying lifeless on the bed.

No one answered the door and I did not hear any inappropriate sounds, so I took a chance and let myself in their house. I walked loudly up the stairs, so that they would hear me coming, before stopping outside their room.

"Ah hem," I cleared my throat to announce my arrival. Then I knocked loudly on the bedroom door, waited several beats just to make sure, and slowly opened the door. "May I come in?"

No one replied, so I entered anyway. Luck must really be on my side, because not only were they not having sex when I found them, but they were fully clothed. As Alice and Bella had said, they were just lying there staring off into space.

"Emmett, Jasper really needs your help at the school, because he doesn't have a lesson plan without you. And Bella needs to get back to the blood manufacturing facility, but she can't do that until you go back to work and pick up your kids. And Rosalie, Edward really needs your help with the hosts. He's with Charlotte and Peter in India picking up New Ebola infected infants and children. These kids are dying and the only comfort they're going to get is Edward's cold hard dead arms. Are you really going to let Edward botch this?" I asked, laying on the guilt trip.

"No, I guess not," Rosalie said getting up. "Get up Emmett and get our girls."

And just like that Rosalie was back on board and Emmett did what his wife ordered. Within the week Rosalie was back with Edward, Peter, and Charlotte and a dozen new dying hosts. The Sudanese had attacked India and infected an entire town and as a result, every man, woman, and child was infected with New Ebola and dying, but we were able to rescue some of the infants and children. And once they were properly implanted, they would be spared the quick gruesome death that came with their deadly disease.

The only problem now was who would get the first hosts and Esme was charged with helping Rosalie make those decisions. They decided that the widows and widowers would get first dibs on hosts. Eleazar did not have any eggs, because he and Carmen did not want children and had destroyed their eggs, so that left Siobhan and Fred to implant their four eggs. There were eight more hosts and those couples who were actively working for our cause were given secondary priority, which meant that Peter, Charlotte, Kate, and Garrett each germinated their eggs and Sean and Maggie germinated their own eggs and those of Caroline and David, because they had already decided to adopt the eggs of their fallen brethren.

I sent the Romanians out with Edward to spread the word that an implantation was happening on Cullen Island and that everyone was invited to witness this most important event. This would be the first implantation since that of Adriel over a thousand years ago and it would be the first implantation that anyone outside of my immediate family had witnessed in several tens of thousands of years. This was what the Cullen Volturi war was all about, so we were making a big deal out of it.

Edward was not even back yet when Alice came bouncing in announcing, "Television. I've arranged for a commercial to announce the implantation to the world!"

"Alice, we can't announce the implantation to the world! We have to keep the secret," I replied surprised that she would even suggest such a thing.

"Relax Carlisle, I've got that covered. I've made a movie trailer about a species of alien that implants its eggs into humans. The trailer's going to include an announcement for the world premiere of the movie, which will be at Cullen Theater on the day after tomorrow. That will give everyone plenty of time to see the commercial and make their way here, but it's soon enough that all of the hosts will still be alive and none of them will be bleeding too badly," Alice replied.

"And I assume you already have the trailer and arranged for a commercial spot?" I asked.

"Of course. Allison helped me with the special effects and Jackson helped me with the story line. It'll air tonight."

"Wonderful Alice. I don't know what I'd do without you," I replied giving her a quick hug.

"You'd be trying to evacuate the island before the mass rioting got any of the children hurt, because you'd never get this implantation under way without me," she answered my rhetorical question.

Between Edward, Stefan, and Vladimir on the ground announcing the implantation and Alice's commercial, all of vampire society was informed of the impending event and most of them made their way to our Island. It made for one crowded event, but Alice was able to order a full set of bleachers to surround the race track, instead of the small section of bleachers that we used to have. She even got the children to assemble them so that they were ready in time for the implantation.

We had a full house for the implantation, which was good for our fragile new democracy, but bad for keeping the secret, because not all of the new hosts were infants. There were two infants and three toddlers among the group, but the other seven hosts were children who were more than old enough to remember this rather odd spectacle.

In order to arouse their suspicion and fear as little as possible, I had all of the hosts moved to the guest house, which was once again set up like a medical clinic. I dressed myself in all my finest doctor garments and paraphernalia, before going into the clinic and explaining to the dying children that I had had them brought here to my clinic to try a new revolutionary treatment on them. I was going to single handedly cure their New Ebola with the latest of pharmaceutical magic in the form of a rather large round pill.

"You're not the first to be cured using this drug. It has been through a rigorous testing process and I'm one hundred percent certain that it's safe and effective," I told the children. "I chose you all to receive the little bit of medicine I have left because of your age. You all are under the age of twelve which means you have limitless potential. Plus, you're cute, and now that you're all orphans, you'll need to get adopted. Luckily that won't be a problem, because the crowd is going to be filled with wealthy men and woman who would love to adopt you.

"Now developing this cure was very expensive and I obtained all of the necessary money from a great many benefactors. These donors want to see where their money has gone, so tonight when I give you all the treatment, I'm going to do it in front of everyone. You'll join me in the middle of the stadium and all of your benefactors will fill the stands. And once you're cured, I'll ask if any of them would be willing to adopt you kids. Like I said, you twelve are the miracle twelve and you'll be among the first to be cured of New Ebola. But, if anyone doesn't want the treatment, I need you to let me know now," I said, making eye contact with each sick child, because I wanted them to have a choice.

Most of the children were still in the flu-like stage of the disease, but one of them, a ten year old boy named Nilay, was already starting to bleed from the nose. I examined each child closely and tried to let them know that they were safe and in good hands with me, but I wanted to know if anyone would rather be buried next to their parents. None of them did.

The only child to raise her hand with a question was a little girl around the age of eight with long dark brown hair named Vinutha. "Yes my child," I said, inviting her to speak freely.

"Can't that nice blond lady adopt us? The one with the curly hair?" Vinutha asked and several of the other children nodded their heads in agreement.

"No, I'm sorry. Rosalie already has her hands full, because I need her to find more sick children to give the cure to. I need lots of healthy children to prove that my medicine works and I need your Rosalie for that. But you don't need to worry, because Rosalie will be with you every step of the way for the next few months. By the time she leaves, you all will be happily settled into your new homes," I said.

Rosalie must have heard her name, because she chose that moment to poke her head around the corner. The sad faces on all of the sick children instantly melted away to grins as they saw the woman who was now their surrogate mother. "Did someone call my name?" Rosalie asked, picking up one of the toddlers and hugging the little boy to her chest.

"Yeah, I did. I wanna go live with you Aunt Rosalie," Vinutha said.

"I want that too, but Charlotte has already called dibs on you. You remember Charlotte, right?" Rosalie asked and the little girl nodded. "She was the first one to find you all. She was the one that decided your village was the one that needed saving. She and her husband have been wanting children for a very long time now and they can't wait to bring you home with them, Vinutha. As for the rest of you, Dr. Cullen won't even have to ask for families to adopt you, because I already have a list a mile long filled with people who want you. I have Esme out there sorting through them all so that I can make sure you all go to the very best possible families."  
>"Esme's the nice one who's married to Dr. Cullen, right?" Vinutha asked. She seemed to be the ring-leader of the bunch.<p>

"That's right," I answered.

None of the children had any additional questions, so I went into an explanation of what they could expect to happen during the implantation. We had some extra time, so I let the children meet their new adoptive parents before the official implantation. Some of the vampires were a little more clueless than others with regards to how to make a human child feel at ease and some of the children were shyer than the others, but all in all I was fairly pleased with how everything was working out.

All of the children were grateful for the chance of a cure and were accepting of their adoption placements. The implantation went without a hitch and little Nilay, who was bleeding, showed an almost instant improvement when he was implanted with Peter's egg, helping with establishing our New Ebola ruse. And best of all, the new vampires in attendance seemed convinced of the legitimacy of the eggs and I was sure that they would go forth and spread what they learned, further accomplishing our goals. And most importantly, we had twelve new vampires on the way and twelve human lives were saved.

There was still the question of what the hosts might tell other humans, but once again we were able to use New Ebola to aid in our deception. There was a very real fear of those persistently infected with the virus, because they were the source of spreading outbreaks to others. Our eggs did not just send the virus into remission, but completely cured the children so that they would not be contagious, but the humans did not know that, which was how we were planning on convincing the children that they needed to keep the secret from other humans.

"Children, I know you all are cured and feel better, but no one else outside of my clinic believes and if we tell them now, they will think that you're chronically infected like the Sudanese. They'll want you dead before even checking to see if you pose a danger. You don't, but I need a lot more successful cases to present to the public before I can announce what I have done. So I need all of you to not tell anyone that you ever had New Ebola. You can tell people that your parents caught the disease and died, which is why you were adopted, but you can't tell them that you yourselves were sick too. This is very important, so can you all do this for me?" I asked and they all nodded.

And so twelve pairs of hosts and eggs were matched up and we were firmly on our way to getting every egg off the shelves and into a host. Knowledge of the eggs was successfully distributed to almost every vampire. And best of all, Alice saw that our odds of forming a stable democracy just skyrocketed, because everyone wanted to journey to Cullen Island to implant hosts now.

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<p>

The Gall Stone of Doom was nominated for Torch awards! I would like to thank whoever nominated me and encourage you all to vote. Also, I nominated one of my most awesome reviewers, DaSrO, for a best reviewer Torch award. You can find the list of nominees here: . and voting will be open March 12-31.

I had hoped that some of my original readers would come back for the sequel, but it doesn't look like they have :( If you're out there, let me know.


	7. Book3 Jasper ch3

Book 3- Jasper- Chapter 3

Jasper's POV:

I stayed trapped in that wormhole for a long time and Kare and Kair came to visit me many times. At first I just cuddled the girls and was content to let time pass, but then I started asking them questions using sign language.

"Your name what?" I asked the girl with the red LED lights. I thought that this one with red was Kair, but until I asked, I would not know for certain.

"Air," she signed back, confirming my suspicions.

It had never occurred to me that Kair would sign her name Air, because I had just assumed she would spell it out. But now that I thought about it, using the sign for a word that sounded exactly like her name was very clever and I liked it. I might even teach her to sign her name this way once she emerges and that just got me thinking about how Kare might sign her name, so I turned to the girl with the blue LED lights and asked, "Your name what?"

"Silly past father. My name R," she signed back.

I smiled and hugged my girls, liking the translation of Kare's name very much; having single signs was much more convenient then constantly having to spell out the four letters of their names. But then the girls left, being called home by their flashing lights again, and a new set of girls came to me. I thought of a few more questions I wanted to know and so I asked, "Old you?"

Both girls put up four fingers, which I promptly kissed. Kare laughed and I could feel her breath leave her mouth and ghost across my face.

"No, no, no," signed Kair.

"Home," signed Kare while squirming to be put down.

I put both girls down and for the first time, they left before their lights flashed. Of course they would have to leave to get more air in their lungs after the accident, but it felt so strange to me that our visit had been cut short. I did not know how long our visits usually were, but I had come to expect a certain fixed length of untime to pass before the lights would flash and they would leave. Now that they were leaving early, I wanted to follow them. I am not sure why I had not thought to try to follow them before, but I tried now and failed miserably. I could not follow them because there seemed to be an invisible impenetrable barrier in the way; I could not even move into the infrared as far as I could into reality.

I was frustrated with my inability to navigate this wormhole and my inability to break free and my total lack of blood and air. I was getting increasingly irritated by my circumstances and I decided that I would try to break free. I had no idea how I was going to make this work, but I was confident that I could make it work, if only because of what my girls had said to me on the day we met.

"_Oh and Dad, we're sorry in advance for what happens when you're in para with us. It'll be an accident and we'll fix it, so don't worry or over react or anything," _Kair had said to me.

If I did not get out of here, then they would not have said that and more importantly, their eggs would never have been implanted into hosts. I probably would not die if I stayed in here forever, but their eggs would not be viable if they were disgorged in here, without blood to keep them fresh. And more to the point, those eggs could not possibly last for the rest of my parity like this. The blood in my stomach would eventually be used up and then the eggs would suffer and not develop. That clearly was not the case, because my twins were alive and visiting me, so there must be a way out.

I did not have to wait long before my first escape attempt occurred to me. The twins came back, dressed in a clean change of clothes and ready to cuddle, but instead of indulging them when they raised their arms to be picked up, I signed, "Take home me," and started pushing my way through the wall of the tunnel, towards where my family and reality were waiting for me. But the tunnel resisted and when it finally gave and let me move outward, it moved with me, dragging the entire wormhole with me.

"Take home not you," Kair signed back.

"Go home me and you," I insisted.

"Cannot," Kare signed.

"Go mother you," I signed, hoping that I could simply follow them out once they made the hole. The girls looked at each other, before turning back to me without signing a reply, so I pointed to just outside the wormhole, to where Alice was sitting on the couch surrounded by my older children. Jackson was telling everyone a vision of the past, but Scryan was off in the future and not listening.

"Mother?" Kair signed.

"Yes, mother," I replied.

"Past Mother?" Kare asked for clarification.

"Yes."

"Love you Past Father," Kair signed.

Kair and Kare crawled perpendicular to the tunnel of the wormhole and they broke through quickly in a flash of harsh white light. I tried to follow and force my body into the hole after them, but I just could not follow them. The tunnel was as hard to penetrate as ever, even where the hole was. And then it was over so quickly and the hole closed and then my chance of escape was gone.

"Kair, Kare!" Alice exclaimed rushing to our twins and picking them up in a hug. "Where's Daddy?"

"Stuck," signed Kare.

"Trapped," signed Kair.

I was a little surprised by the fact that my girls were still signing even though there was plenty of air for them to talk on their side of the wormhole. But the more I thought about how young they were, the more sense it made, because if the girls were only four years old, as they had said before, then they were likely to only be able to speak a few words.

"Go back and get Dad," Allison said. She and the rest of the kids had learned sign language from going to human school with Masen.

"Can't," signed Kare.

"Why not?" asked Scryan.

"Stuck," signed Kair.

"Break through can't," signed Kare.

"No pass through," Kair added.

"Try," pleaded Alice. "Please girls, go to your father and try to bring him home to us."

Kare and Kair nodded and began to crawl back to me, opening up the hole for a second time. I reached out and tried to get my fingers into their hole, but it was no use and I was no closer to figuring out how to get through. The girls opened the hole for me a dozen more times and even held it open for a prolonged time, but I was not able to determine why they could pass through and I could not.

Allison's analysis of the hole yielded a few more clues than my own. She examined it each time it broke through on her side, even reaching her arm in, to see if she could reach me and pull me out. At first I did not know what she was doing, but when she did it a second time, I reached out to her, trying to grab her hand through the web. The fabric of space-time was too thick and coated both of our hands, so that we could never quite touch, but I could feel the shape of her hand as it pushed against mine.

"I did it, I found Dad!" Allison exclaimed. "I can feel his hand touching mine."

"Let me try," Ashley said moving towards the hole with her hand out.

"Together; let's all pull," replied Allison.

Jackson nodded and added his hands to the hole, while Ashley and Allison added their other hands. "Come help us Mom," Jackson requested and Alice joined them. They probably would have asked Scryan to help, but he was still off in a vision.

It took them a while to find me, but they each eventually made contact with both hands to different parts of my body. Allison had my right arm, Jackson had my left, Ashley had a hand on each of my legs, and Alice had her arms around my torso. Their hands were not quite touching my body, but I could feel them pressed against me, with the web-like fabric in between us and separating us. They tried to pull me out, but they just could not get a solid grip on my body, even though I was trying to hold onto Allison and Jackson's hands as tightly as I could. No matter how hard we tried, the fabric would not budge and in the end our hands would all slip and Kair and Kare would lose control of the hole and it would close.

We tried three times before Scryan returned from his vision and said, "It's no use. Kare and Kair are too young and not powerful enough to thin the fabric enough for Dad to be able to cross through the gateway. They're toddlers, not babies, when they rescue him."

And with that everyone stopped trying, the hole closed, and everyone in reality turned to Scryan asking for more answers. He did not have any additional knowledge, so I sat back down and waited.

As my family debated what to do, Kair and Kare silently opened another wormhole and crawled back through to me. I pulled my girls into my lap and held them, cherishing the fact that at least I had them to love. If going through this wormhole was part of getting two new babies, then I could endure this a little while longer. I thanked them for trying and hugged and kissed them, but too soon their lights went off and they had to return to their own time.

When six days had passed for Alice and the kids, Bella, Edward, and their kids arrived to offer Alice emotional support while I was away. They stayed for a few weeks and once they left Emmett and Rosalie arrived with their children to take Bella and Edward's places. Then Carlisle and Esme stopped by, but by then it was fairly obvious that they were not needed, because Alice and my kids had everything under control. Plus, Peter and Charlotte were right next door and they stopped by every day to see how things were going.

And although my twins came and went, I was never alone for long, because my twins from another day would come visit me just as soon as the current ones left. There were never more than one set at a time, but there was almost always one set here and when there was not, they were either coming or going. At first I had assumed that my girls were getting older each time they left and came back. They had on a fresh change of clothes each time, so it was natural to assume that a day had passed for them. But eventually it occurred to me that my girls were slightly smaller than when they first came to me; not much, just a millimeter shorter and an ounce lighter, I was sure of it, although they changed so slowly that it took me this long to notice. Their bodies seemed to be more tightly curled into the fetal position, which was a sign of recent emergence. And their hair seemed to be retracting inwards, because it had gotten a centimeter shorter. I began to get a nagging suspicion that they were getting younger, not older.

"Old you?" I asked my girls again.

This time they each raised three fingers, instead of the four they had raised last time. Could it be true? Had an entire year really passed for them this quickly? How many times had they visited me now? I had not been counting, but my memory was perfect, so I went back and started counting. Three hundred forty-two times was the number I came up with and if each visit, however short it was, represented a day in their lives, then a year really had passed for them. I was not sure how much time had passed for me, but I knew that only twenty-six days had passed for Alice and the kids back in reality, because Alice had a white board put up in the living room with the date on it, which I could see through the fabric of the wormhole. I wanted to say twenty-six days had passed for me too, but the concept of time did not quite exist in here, so maybe it was more like twenty-six undays had passed for me.

Twenty-six days was longer than I had ever willingly gone without blood. It was not long enough to starve, but my throat was burning with thirst and the thought of blood was constantly on my mind. I began to wonder when I would get my next meal and just how long I could go before my eggs would be permanently damaged. I also began to fantasize about the taste of the warm succulent fluid and the way it feels going down my throat; the last time I had been so obsessed with blood I was still with Maria's army.

And then one day when the girls came, Kare had a backpack made of vampire leather strapped to her back and my blood worries ended. They crawled to me and Kare signed the word, "Off," before pulling at the straps.

I reached down to remove the pack for Kare, but she had already torn the straps and Kair and I had reached for the bag at the same time. It ripped in two as it was pulled in two directions at once, despite being made of the sturdiest material known to vampire, and six units of synthetic blood spilled out. Kare and Kair looked to me and signed the word, "Blood."

"Bag gone, blood no more," signed Kare.

I was just so happy to see blood again that I did not care that the bag had ripped. I would care tomorrow when the bag was not available to bring me more blood, but right now I was too excited to care. I sent my girls my excitement, joy, and gratitude for the blood and reached down to pick up a unit. I tore the top off and drank the cold vile blood straight from the bag, relishing each drop as it flowed through my mouth, over my tongue, down my throat, and into my empty stomach.

"Blood cold disgust," Kair signed.

"Blood want you?" I signed to the girls, holding up a second bag after having discarded the first one.

"No. Current mother blood warm me," Kare signed.

"No, three blood me," signed Kair. "Stomach ache me."

"Stomach ache me," agreed Kare.

I should have comforted my daughters, but instead I smiled knowing that Alice must have fed the girls extra just before sending them so that there would be more blood for me. She probably even made the backpack just so that she could send me this blood, although I was not sure where she would get the leather from…maybe Peter and Charlotte helped her with that. And as I thought, I emptied the second unit of blood, before reaching down and picking up the remaining four units. I drank those too.

"Current mother backpack make?" I asked when I finished the last of the blood. There was a lot of debris in the wormhole from the plastic pouches the blood was stored in and the torn backpack, so I began to gather it up into a pile, trying to think how I would get rid of it and wishing I had a trashcan.

"No, current father and favorite uncle backpack make," Kare signed.

I had not thought that I would be present and sending the blood to myself, but it made sense because I would have to exist in their time or they would never have existed.

"Stomach ache me," Kair signed feeling queasy.

I picked her up and tried to comfort her as I should have done earlier, but she was just too full of blood and I got the distinct impression that she was about to blow chunks; I had seen my first four kids vomit up blood when they were full, enough to know the look when I saw it. There was nothing I could do about it in here and I did not have anything with which to clean up the potential mess, so I decided to send the girls home.

"Go home you," I signed, but then I realized that they would never make it all the way to their home in time, so I added, "Past mother go you." I put the girls down and pointed out of the wormhole to where Alice was keeping her vigil, waiting for me to reappear from the wormhole. She had noticed a blind spot in her visions for today so she was certain someone was coming out of the wormhole to visit her and she was already waiting.

"Love you," Kare signed and pulled Kair with her out of my prison and into reality with Alice.

I watched as Kair vomited all over Alice. Then Scryan came into the room with Jackson on his heels and my two boys cleaned up the mess on the floor, while Alice set about cleaning herself and the girls. She took them into the bathroom that was just off of the living room and while she bathed the girls, she called out to Ashley and Allison.

"Yes Mom?" they asked, going into the bathroom and blocking my view of the girls, because I could not move my wormhole closer to them. Well I could, but only an inch at a time and it was just not worth it.

"Can you go next door to Peter and Charlotte's and borrow some of the clothes we bought for Kynna's for your sisters? Their's are ruined and Kynna's are the same size and she's not using them yet," Alice said. Peter and Charlotte's children were not due to emerge for years, but Alice had already taken Charlotte on the first shopping trip last year.

"Sure Mom," Allison replied before taking off with Ashley.

Ashley and Allison returned shortly with two nightgowns and by the time the twins were dressed in Kynna's clothes, their LED lights from their discard clothes were flashing. Their eyes did not turn black this time and for once they did not ask for blood, but they opened up the gateway to my wormhole just the same. They crawled off to their own time, leaving me trapped, but no longer starving.

The next time they came back I was surprised to see that the backpack was back and on Kare's back again, but then I remembered that the girls were getting younger as time passed, so tomorrow for me was yesterday for them. That meant that tomorrow for them was yesterday for me and the reason I had not had blood up until now was that we had torn the backpack on the last visit. I was angry at myself and I considered telling Kare and Kair to tell me in the past to be more careful with the pack and not to damage it, but then it occurred to me that it was a bad idea to try to change the timeline and that the girls were too young to relay such complex instructions.

I carefully removed the backpack this time and looked inside, only to be disappointed to find the pack almost empty. All that was inside was a note from my future self, which read:

Dear Jasper,

I'm sorry about the backpack breaking tomorrow (for me) or yesterday (for you). Please don't dwell on it, because it wasn't your fault. The girls have been bringing you these backpacks since they were born and they failed due to normal wear and tear. I wish that I'll be able to obtain more leather to make another pair of bags, but I already know that I won't, because I don't remember the girls having another set of bags. It was really difficult for me to obtain the first batch, because of the source (Jane, if you're wondering and I know you are, because I was).

The important thing is that we got the blood to you before you starved and the eggs are fine. I've sent you blood in the backpacks since the day the twins emerged three years ago, so you can expect a constant supply of blood until then. It's very important that you're there to watch them in their first five years of life, because I can't follow them in their travels. You did, or will do, a wonderful job watching them and making sure they're safe and stay together. This will become more important as they get younger, because there'll come a time when they don't yet know the rules of time travel, which happens to be where most of the leather went too, because I had to replace those bracelets many times.

It's very important that you teach our girls to stay together and to mind the bracelets and the joining cord while they're with you. You also teach them not to breath in the wormhole and sign language, which is how you've been able to communicate with them all of this time. And it's with you that they first journey to other times and explore the furthest reaches of their powers. I would just like to remind you of how important it is that they don't disturb the time-line, because you getting stuck in time is critical to the decision making process of choosing their hosts. Without a host, they'd never emerge, because it's all interconnected. Plus if you weren't stuck, there would be no one there to watch them.

You won't be stuck forever, because the girls rescue you, just as they rescued me. They can't come to you now, because the babies are blocking the passage with their presence. The wormhole is narrow and they can't exist in the same place at three times (they're already existing there with you twice, because they're both inside your egg pouch as embryos and with you as babies). But don't worry, because the girls, as toddlers, will come and rescue you just as soon as the babies go back into their eggs within their hosts. You'll enjoy the adventure you have with them.

Sincerely Major Jasper Cullen Whitlock

P.s. I'm having a great time living here with Peter and Charlotte and I'm really glad we moved the hosts here for the emergences, because the girls can't travel across the country, only through time.

I tucked the letter from myself into my back pocket and then proceeded to fill the backpack with the trash from yesterday. Once the wormhole was clean, I pulled the girls into my lap and began signing to them with the goal of teaching them sign language in mind. They already knew everything I signed, but I knew there would come a time when they would not, because of the letter. When their lights flashed, I reattached the backpack and happily sent the girls on their way, knowing that the blood would run freely from now on.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Fiona, don't ever let that hold you back: hold your head high and try.<p>

This chapter reveals the story arc for Jasper's book. When he finishes doing everything he told himself to do in the letter, he'll finally be able to go back home. And time will continue to flow in opposite directions for Jasper and the twins until the twins' emergence, when they'll go back inside their eggs.


	8. Book1 Carlisle ch4

Book 1- Carlisle- Chapter 4

Carlisle POV:

* * *

><p>Rosalie and Edward traveled with the hosts and new parents to a dozen cities around the globe and organized secret vampire conventions so that our kind could come and see for themselves, because not everyone had made it to the first implantation. Word had already spread, but we wanted to prove the validity of the eggs by letting our people smell the change in scent associated with the hosts. And it was a safety issue, because we needed everyone to be able to differentiate the smell of the hosts, so that the hosts were not accidentally eaten, which would be vitally important if they were ever to leave our island. The drinking of a host was the type of thing the next great vampire war could be fought over.<p>

The hosts went with their new adoptive parents and were told that they were going to meet new potential donors, because we needed more money to make the next batch of cure, so that we could go out there and find more people to save. And since they were all young children, not one of them noticed that we were lying to them. They were all bonding with their new parents and it was going remarkably well, thanks in part to Rosalie and Esme's parenting and human adoption classes that they were giving all of the new parents. And since these parents were all members of my extended family and staying on our island, it was easy for them to give the classes and help out with the new hosts by making them feel more comfortable.

By the time three months passed the first set of hosts was properly settled into their new lives and Rosalie and Edward were free to go forth and obtain more hosts. This time it was easier because all of vampire society had their eyes open and were on the lookout for potential new hosts. Many vampires had even journeyed to our island to obtain egg-cells to store their own eggs for implantation. Esme registered each serial number of each unit to the expecting parents and gave them care instruction and enough venom and blood to last a year with orders to return next year for a refill.

And so when we put the word out that we were planning another round of implantations, four vampires showed up with eggs and hosts in hand and dozens more came with hosts to donate. Most surprisingly the Nigerian coven came with sixteen North African Classic children who were infected with New Ebola. No one ever paid attention to the many North African Classics who died each year, at the border where Classics and Sudanese meet, because it was normal for thousands of these people to die every year. The population of Classics on the African continent decreased every year, so the number of infections went down every year, but the virus was still lethal to the hundred thousand or so Classics hiding in the Saharan desert and every year entire pockets of these people would become exposed and die.

The Nigerian's arrival on our island was a surprise to me because we had asked them to come both after Nessie's birth and during our war with the Volturi and both times they had refused. Rosalie and Emmett spent a lot of time over the years on safari in Africa and we were all friendly, so I had hoped that they would come and support us. But every time we asked, they refused to stand against our leaders with us. I was beginning to think that it was personal and that they opposed our rule, but now that they were here Edward informed me that it was simply that they had been afraid. I could understand their fear, so I welcomed them with opened arms and thanked them for the hosts.

The Nigerian coven was currently composed of a mated pair and a new single Sudanese male. Vertical reproduction was still new to vampires, and so Classic and Sudanese humans were still being bitten and transformed all of the time. It was natural for us to choose the best and brightest, so it was to be expected that vampires in Africa would chose Sudanese to bite. So now we had three types of vampires running around: Pureblood vampires, Classic vampires, and Sudanese vampires, but we were not dealing with the situation as badly as the Classics and Sudanese humans were.

Instead of attacking or going to war with our brothers, we were mating with them and bringing them into our society, because we did not have to be weary of New Ebola. Uwa, the only Sudanese member of the Nigerian coven, recently found a mate here on Cullen Island. It was love at first sight for him and Stefan of the Romanian coven and I was particularly pleased when no one had anything bad to say about the pairing.

In fact, everyone was happy for Stefan to find a new mate after losing his last one so many millennia ago to the Volturi; no one seemed to care that said mate was a Sudanese male, which showed just how much we were progressing as a society. The biggest piece of gossip going around about Stefan and Uwa was regarding how Uwa had come to join the Nigerian coven in the first place, because he was changed by Jideofor and intended to be his mate, but that had not worked out.

Jideofor was one of the many single gay vampires that Esme had tried to set Edward up with in the nineteen nineties. It had not worked out, because Edward surprisingly turned out to be straight, but it had established the close friendship between our coven and that of the Nigerians and Emmett and Rosalie had continued to visit them regularly. I was happy to learn that his creation of Uwa was turning out for the best, despite the initial problems.

Uwa was dazzled by Jideofor as any human is with any vampire, but once he was changed, it was clear that they were not mates. Jideofor had since tried again to find a mate and was more successful the second time. He and his new mate had split off from the coven, both because five members was too large a coven and because they wanted to get away from Uwa and any reminders of Jideofor's past mistake. And so Uwa was left with the Nigerians by his creator and therefore traveled with this coven to our island to help deliver us hosts, which led to him meeting Stefan in the first place. Fate seems to have a way of making everything work out for the best.

With sixteen hosts from the Nigerians and another eight donated from other vampires, we had more than enough hosts to cover all of the remaining eggs, including the orphaned ones. Tanya and Jason's eggs, all eight eggs from the Amazonian coven, Benjamin and Tia's eggs, Charles and Makenna's eggs, and even the nomad Randall's egg were all implanted, which was every egg in our store house. This time we had more hosts than eggs and freely offered the extra humans up to anyone who wanted one.

Another mated pair arrived with newly disgorged eggs in a bucket of blood, but they were the only ones to respond to the announcement of extra hosts, because no one else had eggs that were ready. Eggs are only disgorged once every hundred years, so having fresh eggs was a rare event, meaning that many excess hosts would have to die. The children with New Ebola were the most critical, because victims only last on the order of two to four weeks, but the other children were dying more slowly. Thus I decided to implant the New Ebola infected children first and admitted the extra children, who did not have New Ebola and were dying more slowly, to our clinic. If we could just prolong their lives a little while longer, then maybe an egg would come along before they died. And this would allow us to keep a constant supply of hosts on hand for possible implantation, so that new parents would not have to wait in the future.

Another twenty-one hosts were implanted, seventeen of which left our island immediately to go home with their families. It was a happy occasion, except for the fact that Esme was unable to find anyone to adopt Benjamin and Tia's eggs. The entire Egyptian coven had been destroyed, so they had no family left to go to. Benjamin and Tia had been close with both the Irish and English covens, but both of those covens were decimated and down to just three adults and they already had six eggs between them. Maggie told me that she would take the orphaned eggs, but she already had her hands full with the orphaned eggs from their own coven.

Esme asked everyone we knew if they wanted to adopt Tia and Benjamin's eggs, but no one came forward. She was getting rather depressed about the whole situation, because she was able to find placements for all of the other eggs so easily, which made the ordeal with Tia and Benjamin's eggs seem all the more tedious in comparison. Even the eggs of the nomads Charles and Makenna were adopted right away when her Uncle Luca came for them. Luca had shown up to the first implantation and learned of the orphaned eggs. He insisted that as the next of kin, he was not leaving without their flow cells, and so Esme had not even had to look for adoptive parents.

The only eggs Esme had any trouble placing were Benjamin's and Tia's and she had even gone so far as contacting neighboring covens and nomadic friends of the pair, but to no avail. I did not want her to fall back into her funk, so I insisted that we implant the eggs without parents and look after the hosts ourselves. It would be difficult to have humans under the same roof as our own children, but these were not any humans; they were hosts. Hosts smell off and I was pleasantly surprised when Aiden and Adriel found the scent revolting.

Esme was kept busy juggling the two sets of children, trying to pay attention to both, with them spending as little time as possible together. The task took away from the time she had to help with the implantation center and its related responsibilities, but she managed. She even still made time to continue her search for adoptive parents for the Egyptian eggs.

Benjamin and Tia's children would not be inside their hosts forever and Esme hoped that she would be able to find adoptive parents for them before they emerged. But she had already asked everyone who knew the couple and was now asking vampires who never even met them if they would consider adoption. And despite all of her efforts, she was still unsuccessful, because everyone who wanted children was concentrating on their own eggs.

"We'll adopt those eggs ourselves if no one comes forward," I told my wife one day after yet another rejection in her attempts to place the eggs. She looked at me with wide surprised eyes, but she nodded and for the first time since Carl's death, she smiled at me. Maybe Emmett did have it right and the promise of new children could fix anything.

And so with the implantation of the eggs, vampire society was starting to settle down and my job was becoming easier. It would never end, because I would always have to go out on missions to keep the peace, but within the first year, we really had reached a time of peace and happiness. Many of us were still grieving, but we had our friends and family to comfort us and we had our jobs to occupy us and keep our minds off of our lost loved ones.

Emmett was keeping busy teaching our children and being a full-time dad when Rosalie was away. Bella was in charge of blood and venom production. Rosalie was busy with the hosts and helping Edward with converting the vacant shape-shifter apartment complex on the island into a new children's hospital for potential hosts. Esme was helping with the remodel and had decided to add an implantation information room within the small hospital in lieu of an implantation center. I was kept busy playing gracious hosts to the myriad of vampires who were coming to our island in droves to meet us or to implant their eggs. And Alice was my right hand, making sure everything got done that needed to be done.

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><p>Author's Note: Voting is still open for <span>The Torch Awards<span> is still open. If you have not already voted for The Gall Stone of Doom for People's Choice, please do so now.

Don't forget to review and I am still looking for hybrid names, powers, and shapes, if anyone would like to contribute! Seth and Jennifer will be expecting again soon…


	9. Book3 Jasper ch4

I have a new banner for this story at http (cilon) / i(dot)imgur(dot)com / dWZeg(dot)jpg

Book3-Jasper-ch.4

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><p>Jasper's POV:<p>

The girls continued to visit me and they brought the pack full of blood once every twelve visits. It still only held six units, and the twins were no longer full so I had to give them each one while I drank, so I only had four units left to myself. It was enough to placate the constant burn in my throat and keep me going, but it never truly satisfied me and I never felt full on the restrictive diet.

I spent most of my time signing with the girls and as time went on I began to notice that they no longer understood the language as fluently; they no longer knew every word I signed and their grammar became more like English and less like American Sign Language. And they could no longer answer when I asked, "Old you?" I was not sure if it was because they did not understand the sign, the meaning of the phrase, or if they simple did not know how old they were right now.

And then one day they each arrived wearing a button that read, "It's my birthday, I'm 3." They still could not answer my question that day, but the next day when I asked, they both put two fingers up, and so I decided that they understood the question, but no longer knew how old they were because they had just turned three. But then they would only know that they were two now if I had already taught it to them, so I set about teaching them how old they were.

A few days later they arrived with two backpacks instead of one and I finally understood why the note I had written myself in the future referred to two packs when there had only been one; there had originally been two but one had broken, and judging by the fact that it was gone yesterday, it must have broken today. I reached down to remove Kair's pack before it could tear, but she was faster than me and ripped it off before I could get to her. Oh well, I cannot change the timeline so I might as well stop trying.

I then removed Kare's pack, before it too could be damaged. When I opened it up and looked inside, I saw that it contained the usual six units of blood. Then I looked down at my feet to see that Kair had torn her pack to shreds, exposing another six units of synthetic blood. That meant there were twelve units of blood this time and I smiled as I realized that my family had sent me enough blood for a feast.

"No, wait," I signed, grabbing the units of blood that Kair and Kare had each been about to bite into. They had grabbed them when Kair tore open her pack, but I did not want them to make a mess or worse, possibly ingest plastic fragments.

Not having cups, I made my usual small tear in the plastic and held the unit out to Kair, who greedily accepted it. She gulped it down quickly, destroying the neat hole with her sharp razor teeth, while I repeated the process with Kare, handing her the second unit. And then they were both feeding and I was free to open a unit of glorious blood for myself. I inhaled it and went for another, while Kare and Kair discarded their empty packets and began to lick the blood droplets from the floor of the wormhole.

We feasted that day and it was a wonderful time of celebration and happiness. I drank seven of the blood units and the girls each had two and a half; it was finally enough to fill my stomach to the brim and stave off the incessant burning in my throat. I am not sure of the reason behind the sudden increase in blood supply, but I was more than happy to take advantage of it and continued to gorge myself on blood every twelve visits when the twelve units reappeared in the backpacks like clockwork.

Seeing the second backpack reminded me of the letter I had sent myself, so I took it out of my back pocket and reread it. One thing in particular caught my eye: the bit about the vampire leather coming from Jane. Kair had told me before, on the day we met actually, that Jane would be the only member of the Volturi to survive our war and that she would die at a later date for future crimes.

Jane had survived our attack on Volterra simply by not being present when our bomb was dropped, because she had been off on her own visiting a friend in France. We thought about waiting to drop the bomb until she came back, but she had the appearance of a twelve year old girl and none of us really wanted to murder a child, especially because we all had children of our own that age. There was some talk about postponing the blast until Alec, her twin, was out of the way too, but he had no plans to leave the city and we had a bomb to drop, so in the end, he died and she survived.

Jane was not happy about her twin's demise or that of Aro, who she considered her father, and she was all alone in the world and without a powerful coven to back her up for the first time in her existence. At the time she had conceded defeat and agreed to stay with her friend in France and was even adopted by the French Coven and so we had forgotten about her. But now that I reread the letter, it occurred to me that we should probably check on Jane and make sure she was not planning her revenge. If she was, then she would have to be executed and I would be able to harvest her skin to make the leather before her execution. I did not particularly want to torture the child-like vampire, but I needed the leather and I was willing to make her suffer the way she had made so many others suffer in order to get it. I would have to track Jane down and find out what she is up to just as soon as I get out of here and back to the present.

I put the letter into my back packet once again and went back to enjoying my time alone with my girls. It was during this period of time when Kair and Kare first led me back in time. I still could not walk forwards in time, but I realized that I could easily go backwards on my own and I did not even require their presence to do so. The biggest problem with going backwards was that I could not go forwards into my own time. I could go back to unyesterday, but then I would never be in untoday again. I could keep going and go into un-the-day-before yesterday, but then I could never get back into unyesterday again.

While I was in unyesterday, I could see myself trapped in my wormhole, but I could not interact with myself. It was as if I was in a dimension located outside of the typical four dimensions of space-time and outside of the four dimensions of my original wormhole, but in fact I was sharing the dimension of time with my original wormhole, because the tunnel looped around so that it was in unyesterday twice. It was confusing even with my gigantic vampire brain, but it gave me new insights into how Kair and Kare traveled.

Once my wormhole was bent and convoluted from traveling backwards in time, I had a new perspective with which to view Kare and Kair's regular arrival and departures. They were not in the same wormhole as me, but were crawling in on a separate wormhole that linked with my own. And this knowledge helped me understand why it was that the girls could only be present twice at any one point in my wormhole; it was because there simple was not enough room in physical space for more than one of their wormholes to dock with mine and without a second docking site, they could not enter a second time. So their embryos could be present, because they entered the wormhole with me and one copy of their baby selves could attach on their wormhole and be present, but their older selves were permanently blocked out and therefore unable to assist me.

But there was nothing I could do about being stuck in this wormhole until after the babies grew younger and stop visiting me, so I let them lead me further back in time. We journeyed to when we first moved to Houston to be with my brother Peter, which was a little more than a year ago. I could hear Alice and me speaking upstairs in our bedroom, but the only two vampires present in the living room, where my wormhole was located, were Ashley and Scryan. Ashley and Scryan were engaged in typical behavior for them, which meant that they were hanging upside down from the ceiling.

I wanted to call out to them and see if they could hear me, but I stopped myself before I made such an egregious mistake, because there was still no nitrogen or oxygen molecules present in my wormhole and I would not be able to refill my lungs in this vacuum once they were emptied. It was beginning to become increasingly uncomfortable and painful to hold my breath and I began to wonder how much longer I would be able to hold it, because I had never held my breath for this long before. It was not even close. Allison said that we can hold our breath forever as long as we have fresh blood in our system and I guess that this will be the proof of principal for that hypothesis.

Maybe that was even why my family was sending me more blood now. Maybe the increased blood was to compensate for my decreased oxygen levels. I certainly seemed to keep up with the bloated diet without ever feeling too full, so my body must be using all of the blood. But then that got me thinking about where the blood goes once my body finishes with it. We do not defecate and I remember Allison explaining that the excess weight of the blood is converted into carbon dioxide and water, which we exhale. Maybe that was why my lungs were burning so badly even though I had plenty of blood coursing through me. Maybe I needed to exhale in order to divest my body of its waste products.

But in the end, it did not matter how much I wanted or needed to breathe, because without air, it was an impossibility. If I opened my lungs and exhaled I would empty them and be unable to refill them, which would be even worse than the heavy weight of excess carbon dioxide and water molecules. So I held my breath and decided to try to contact Ashley with empathy again. I called out to her with mischievousness, playfulness, and happiness.

"Dad's calling me," Ashley said, jumping down from the ceiling. I was so excited that she had felt me when she had not been able to feel me before that I got my hopes up and started thinking about going home.

"I don't feel anything," Scryan replied, staying put on the ceiling.

"Yeah Dad!" Ashley called. "What do you want?"

I tried to call out to her again, but she was not paying attention to me, because the other me was there and answering her much more forcefully than I could.

"Nothing, I didn't call you," past me replied, coming into the room and leaving Alice alone in our room.

"But I can feel my name," Ashley countered and I forced out the mischievousness, playfulness, and happiness harder, so that she would not think it was a figment of her imagination.

"I feel it too," past me said walking around the room and obviously trying to locate the source. "I think it's coming from Scry." My wormhole was relatively close to Scryan's location, with the major difference being that he was up above and I was down below, so I could understand how I could make that mistake. I started trying to push my wormhole away from Scryan so that Ashley and past me would be able to differentiate the two of us, but it was no use and I just could not move it quickly enough. I was getting weaker trapped in this vacuum prison, so I was not even able to move it as far as I was last time I had tried.

"I'm not calling Ash; I can't call anyone that way," Scryan replied.

"You're not feeling particularly mischievous, playful, and happy today? I also sense a great deal of hope, with a foreboding sense of dread. How unusual," past me said.

"Nope, that's not me," Scryan replied.

"Well then the ground beneath you is feeling that way. Maybe there's an animal under the house," past me said.

"If there was an animal there, we'd hear its heartbeat," Ashley said.

"I don't hear anything or feel anything. I don't know what you two are talking about," Scryan insisted, still clinging to the ceiling.

"Well it's gone now, so I guess we'll never figure out the mystery," Ashley replied before doing a backflip and catching hold of the ceiling. She planted her hands and feet back against the flat surface and resumed her earlier position.

Past me left without figuring out that I was even here and Ashley and Scryan went on with their day. I tried calling out to Ashley a few more times, but she must not have been able to feel me. I thought for a moment that she might be ignoring me on purpose, but if that was the case I would be able to feel annoyance from her, which was not present. And then there was the fact that I could remember this day from when I had lived it the first time and I had not figured it out then, so I gave up and stopped trying to alter this timeline.

Kare and Kair were waiting for me, ready to lead me on, further into the past, so I followed them and left my own time far behind. I saw Peter and Charlotte fixing up this house before we moved in and then I saw the Texas grassland before the land was disturbed. From here I could see across the field to where Peter and Charlotte's house stood. I saw them coming out at night to hunt or to check on their hosts, but as I went further back in time, I saw them moving into their own house.

I was reluctant to keep going back so I lingered, watching them paint their house under the cover of the moon-lit night, because the days were too sunny for vampires. And then Kare and Kair's lights began to blink and they went back to their own time.


	10. Book1 Carlisle ch5

Book1-Carlisle-ch.5

Carlisle POV:

Benjamin and Tia's eggs were implanted into a pair of North African Classic children named Kadia and Kenwei. They were both girls from a small village in the Libyan desert and had been brought to us by the Nigerians after their village had been infected with New Ebola. They were not sisters, but they were first cousins and looked enough alike to pass for sisters. Having two children with the same background being adopted together made the transition easier.

Kadia was eleven when she came to live with us and Kenwei was nine, so they were still young enough to overlook many of our peculiarities. Developmentally, they were of a similar age to our boys, but we did not want the two to mix any more than absolutely necessary, because if they did, the humans would eventually notice that our boys do not age. As it was we told the girls that our boys, like many Classic children, were the product of genetic engineering designed to extend their lifespans.

The Classics were always trying to increase their lifespans by altering the genes involved in human aging and this type of experimentation often had unexpected consequences. So we told the hosts that our children's slow growth rate was the result of a genetic modification gone wrong and that they were aging more slowly, as desired, but they were also growing up incredibly slowly. No one wanted to spend decades changing diapers, so the experiment had been labeled a failure and no one would again attempt to modify the same gene.

And since the hosts would only be under our roof for a decade before they mature and move out, we were hoping that they would never notice just how slowly the children were aging or that they happened to drink blood. We would have to minimize the contact between our boys and the hosts, to minimize the possibility of the hosts noticing anything strange. And that would be a big inconvenience, but we had an extended family to help and I was sure we would manage.

We arranged for our boys to hang out with friends after school until the humans went to sleep and set up separate schooling for the hosts. The Canadian government offered free computer-based homeschooling, a fact we took advantage of with our girls, because it meant that Esme only had to monitor them, not teach them. Typically she set the girls up on their laptops in her office while she worked on her various construction projects, although occasionally she set them up in a spare room in the children's hospital while she tended to her duties at the egg implantation center.

Caring for Kenwei and Kadia kept Esme busy, but she still made time to tend to her other responsibilities, such as caring for our two sons, managing all of our construction projects, and supervising the egg implantation center. We had a steady stream of guests with fresh eggs who journeyed to our island. There were not many, but at least a couple or two came every year and someone had to show them around, assign them hosts from our children's hospital, supervise the implantation, and ensure that the new parents knew how to care for human hosts, and all of those jobs fell to my wife.

I was so busy with matters of State, such as settling disputes among covens and making sure every vampire towed the line and kept the secret, that I normally let Esme do her thing with the new parents. I would introduce myself, congratulate them on becoming parents, and wish them the best, and it was only rarely that I took an interest in a particular pair of parents to be. But when Lefu and Nombeko of the Antarctic coven arrived with a pair of freshly disgorged eggs, I was very interested.

The Antarctic coven had a pair of immortal children and I hoped that once they had pureblood children, they would decide on their own to destroy the monsters. Immortal children cannot grow, mature, or learn to control themselves like pureblood children, but they were incredibly cute and filled the void created by the absence of pureblood children. Once that void is filled, ideally the parents would see fit to destroy the substitutes and the immortal child controversy would end.

So when Lefu and his mate Nombeko showed up, I let Esme do her thing, but kept tabs on them, seeing if I could discern any changing feelings regarding their immortal children that had been left back home with their other coven members. From what I gathered, their coven was determined to keep the immortals and raise purebloods in a mixed family of sorts. And it was not until Scryan saw their future for them that they changed their mind.

Every new parent wanted to know if their eggs were boys or girls and many also wanted to know what they would look like, so it became a tradition for Alice or Scryan to scry the hatchlings for the new parents before they left the island. Sometimes Alice would even draw a sketch of the children, but she had her hands full with her other duties, so when she was busy, Scryan would fill in.

When Scryan came back from his vision of the future, he told Nombeko and Lefu, "I'm sorry, but I can't see your eggs."

Scryan had never failed to see a pair of hatchlings before, so Esme and I exchanged confused glances before he continued. "I see that you'll take your hosts with you back to Antarctica and your coven. But then I see your immortal children drinking your hosts, because they're too wild to control themselves, even when the smell is revolting. You can't control them or teach them not to harm the hosts, so unless you decide not to rejoin your coven, your eggs won't survive and I won't be able to scry them."

The Antartician were both surprised and devastated by this news. At first they lashed out at me, because it was a member of my coven who had delivered the bad news and they thought it was just a ploy to make them destroy their immortal children. That was indeed exactly what I wanted, but I was not about to manipulate the situation to get my way and I would _never_ risk the lives of hatchlings to do so, because that would make me no better than Aro. No, this administration would be incorruptible and honest and I told Nombeko and Lefu as much. I had agreed to let the immortal children live and I stood by my word; it would be on them to destroy their children when they were ready. I just had to wait and wish that they would be ready soon.

The argument which ensued got rather heated before Scryan interrupted. "Why don't you decide to separate from your coven and keep the hosts away from the immortal children until your eggs hatch?" Scryan asked. "I can't see the eggs, because of the immortal children, but if you decide to keep them separated, maybe I could see."

The Antartician must have listened, because Scryan went off into a vision right away. When he returned to us he grabbed a piece of paper and sketched two adorable children who looked very similar to Lefu and Nombeko. It was not as good as Alice's, but it was good enough to make the new parents fall in love. He handed the sketch over and said, "There, it's two girls. Now stop arguing and start figuring out where you're going to move to."

Scryan left after that and Nombeko and Lefu had a lot of thinking to do, so Esme and I left them alone for a while. After a few days, they left our island with their hosts and relocated to Australia. They sent word to their coven members that they could not return and the remaining members agreed to watch the immortal children until the emergence, but that plan only lasted until the remaining two members disgorged eggs of their own.

With both couples in the coven with eggs, there was no one left to care for the immortal children, so it was unanimously decided to destroy them. I was saddened by their deaths, but it was necessary to ensure all of our safety. Word of the burning spread quickly along with the warning that hosts are not safe around immortal children, giving vampires one more reason not to make such abominations in the future. I can only hope that these two will be the last immortal children in our history.

And so one of the toughest dilemmas I had faced as a ruler, a problem so great I had worried it would tear our society apart before it was even fully formed, resolved itself peacefully and on its own. It gave me new hope that I was doing the right thing and everything was going so well that I was caught off guard when Jasper came to me and said, "Listen Carlisle, we need to move."

I had thought everything was going fine and that our island was the perfect capital for our new government. We had been living here for over a thousand years without issues and we already had many structures built. It was secluded, so that humans would not notice our strange activities. Sure it was small, but so far it was large enough for us. I definitely had not expected Jasper to tell me we needed to leave.

"Why?" I asked, really not wanting to move.

"The biggest reason is that we can't keep your hosts isolated on our island forever. They need human contact and they need to go to regular school. We need to do everything right to set a proper example, but the example we're currently setting is that it's okay to lock your hosts up and imprison them for their own safety," he answered and he had a point. "Everyone else with hosts is setting a better example than us, because even Peter and Charlotte have their hosts in human school."

The last thing I wanted to do was violate human rights, especially the rights of Kadia and Kenwei, so I nodded and he continued.

"Also, we need to be closer to the center of our population, so that we're not a seat of power isolated from our people. We need to turn this into a real democracy, which means a proper capital and elected officials outside of our family. Right now all we have is an empire with a pleasant kind absolute ruler, but what we need is a congress or parliament with representatives from all of the covens and from the nomads. We need to organize a meeting where vampires can come and give their opinions on how this country should be formed. We need everyone to help draft our constitution," he said, making perfect sense.

I had thought that I was the obvious leader in Aiden's absence, but now I realized that it was Jasper who knew the most about politics and leadership.

"I don't want to take over. I'm more than happy with my job with the children. I'm just trying to help," Jasper placated me. He must have thought I thought that he was butting in.

"No, it's not that. I was just thinking that I ought to have you as my advisor. Maybe even my vice president."

"And about that: you aren't the president because no one has voted for you. Right now you are our emperor, king, monarch, pharaoh, or whatever else you want to call yourself. Once we have a constitution and a congress we can hold proper elections," he replied.

"Oh, I never thought about that. Your twins said Aiden would be president and I just assumed…" I trailed off. I did not know what I assumed, but I clearly had been of the mind to repeat what the Volturi had done without implementing any real change. The last thing I wanted was another absolute ruler. "You're right: we'll need elections."

"No matter what happens, as leader of the largest coven, you'll always have a place in congress."

"As long as you'll continue to advise me, I'll do it."

"There's nothing special about me other than a degree in history and a familiarity with politics. After a few decades, you'll know the ropes and won't need me. Besides, I really would like to keep my role with the children. And I'm in para now, so I don't want to take on any additional stress that might harm my eggs," he said placing his hand over his egg-pouch.

"Oh, I didn't realize…" I said realizing now that the passing of a year meant a parity for him. His twins were to be conceived on the one year anniversary of the helicopter battle and that date had passed without me thinking of anything other than the fact that the date was the one year anniversary of Carl and Rosita's deaths. "Did you and Alice?"

"Yes."

"Congratulations. They seem like great kids and they really helped us out of a tough spot," I said and he nodded.

"Thank you. But if we could get back to discussing the move?"

"Yes, of course," I replied and Jasper proceeded to tell me of his plans for our new democratic government.

He wanted to get a congress together to approve a final constitution, but he already had a rough draft and a list of new vampire laws for us to start with. His constitution outlined what seemed to be a fair and impartial system for electing a congress and a president, which was similar to many successful human democratic systems, but because of expanded lifetimes, the number of years in a term was correspondingly increased.

He thought one hundred years for us to every one human year was a good standard to go by, so he proposed that congressmen would be elected every two hundred years and the president every four hundred. I thought that this seemed a bit too long and was leaning towards half of that, but we agreed that it was a matter for the congress to decide. Either way, our system would turn over far slower than the human equivalent, but the people would still be free to control and change it as they saw fit.

His list of new laws all concerned eggs, hosts, and children and most of them were common sense, like, "The drinking of another vampire's host shall be punished by death." But, a few of them were things I had not considered, such as, "Primary physical and legal custody of an egg and all decisions regarding said egg shall be awarded to the egg-bearer, with secondary custody going to the mate of the egg-bearer." I had never considered what would happen to the eggs if a set of parents were not in agreement, but we already had one single father out there, a nomad named Randall, so it seemed a good idea to have laws established in case the other parent ever came forward. And Randall was not the only one to have a romantic encounter with someone who was not his sole-mate, so in all likelihood this would become a more serious problem in the future.

There was even a law I was guilty of violating: "A host shall not be kept away from the corresponding egg-bearer; this act shall be considered egg-knapping, and is punishable with a penalty of death." I had kept Emmett and Esme away from Violet and Adriel's hosts, before we knew that it was important for the egg-bearer to smell the pheromones released by the hosts. I did it to minimize our interaction with the humans, not to be malicious, and I righted the situation as soon as I was aware of the problem, but it seemed Jasper thought poorly of it all and wanted to make it illegal for anyone to do so in the future. I agreed the in hindsight it was a cruel thing to do and so added it to the laws we would vote upon just as soon as we can elect a body of officials to do said voting.

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><p>Author's Note: And so Jasper has set the stage for moving the family south, to Canada. It will be many years yet before they go, but I think it's time to jump ahead to Masen's story and the year they start school. Is anyone looking forward to seeing more of the kids?<p>

This story has been nominated for multiple iSparkle Awards! Check it out at theisparkleawards (dot) moonfruit (dot) com (slash) # (slash) nominees (slash) 4562312492

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The iSparkle awards start and end first, so check them out in that order. Thank you so much to anyone who is kind enough to vote for me and whoever nominated me. It means so much to me that you readers value my story enough to take the time out to nominate me!


	11. Book2 Masen ch1

Book 2- Masen- Chapter 1

Masen's POV:

Our parents had been talking about it for years and our teachers had been preparing us for it too, and now it was finally happening, because we were officially moving to Manitoba Canada. Grandma Esme finished building our new houses and Grandpa Carlisle finally had his congress up and running, so we all went south. And we had not even finished unpacking when my dad decided that he was taking us hiking.

Dad and Uncle Emmett took us to the Caribou River Park Reserve, which was so close it was practically in our backyard. The park was not all that different from our island, but it was farther south, which meant that the trees were taller and thicker. There were none of the cold stunted trees we were used to, but giant towering coniferous monsters. We had a river too, but the river in this park made our river back home look like a tickle from a broken faucet. And the caribou here dwarf the ones we had back on the island.

This was the first time we had ever left our island since we were newly emerged hatchlings and everyone was in awe of the scenery around us and itching to catch the biggest bull, or even better, the biggest wolf. We were all joking and laughing and running through the forest on the trail of a small herd. I was enjoying the feel of the wind in my hair and the squishy grass beneath my feet, and the musky scent of the caribou, but still, I was monitoring Scryan's every thought.

As the three mind readers, my sister, my dad, and I were in charge of sifting through every vision of the future as they happened. There were not many, because Scryan had to stop the hunt in order to see, but still, we were listening in, prepared to intervene at any moment to prevent whatever potential tragedy Scryan might see. We were not just watching for Scryan's slips, but for everyone's slips.

Scryan, however, was a lot less concerned about looking for visions at this particular moment than he was about swinging through the trees and chasing after his two oldest siblings. The three Whitlock children were brachiating through the trees, demonstrating why vampires as a species evolutionarily belong in the ape clade. And since Uncle Jasper was at home with Ashley, there was no one present who even hoped of reining them in and making them run with the rest of us.

Scryan was always on the ceiling with Ashley lying in wait for an unsuspecting victim and Jackson was into the extreme sports, so none of us were surprised when they took to the trees, but I was disappointed when Allison joined them. Allison was the least adventurous of the family and she was also my best friend, so I had hoped she would run next to me during this trip. And when we arrived and she took to the trees, I tried to follow after her, but my dad called me back and made me run with him and my sister Eliza.

Eliza was the worst sister imaginable. She was bossy, stuck up, condescending, annoying, violent, mean spirited, and her hobbies included hitting me, punching me, pinching me, and kicking me. But by far the worst part about her was her mind shield and that I could not hear what she was thinking, ever. That meant that she could sneak up on me and subject me to whatever horrors she had planned without any warning, but that was not even the worst part about her shield.

By far the worst part about Eliza and her shield was that she could not hear me telepath directly. She only heard me when I projected my thoughts into the minds of others; she heard me by reading their minds and that meant that I could only talk to her indirectly. And if that was not bad enough, she has always been difficult about it and tries to convince my parents that I need to speak out loud so that she can hear me. What is so wrong with listening to me through someone else? Sure it was a pain, but there is no reason to go to such barbaric extremes and expect me to learn to speak out loud!

Unfortunately, speaking out loud was exactly what my parents wanted me to learn to do and not just for Eliza's benefit. My mom was also a shield and could only hear me when she threw her shield, so she was taking Eliza's side and insisting that I needed to speak. "What if something bad happens and I'm physically unable to throw my shield and you need to speak to me and no one else is around?" Mom would question whenever I argued with her.

To Mom speech was a necessity, but to me it was a useless crutch that non-telepaths had to use because they lacked my ability. And to make matters worse, Dad was totally on Mom's side. Dad was completely whipped, so he did whatever Mom said, and that included pestering me to speak. The only one in my family who is not completely lame is my sister Nessie, but she does not even live with us anymore.

Nessie did have some lamer qualities, like being married to a shifter and insisting that Eliza and I treat each other civilly, but other than that she was pretty cool. Not only did she have the whole exotic vampire human hybrid thing going on, but also she was a shield breaker. With just a touch of her hand to the forehead, she could break any shield, including Eliza's, Mom's, and my own. She did not do it all the time, but she would do it for Eliza and me whenever we requested it; it was the only time I ever heard Eliza's thoughts and vice versa.

Being inside Eliza's mind was pretty miserable, because there was an incessant onslaught of past thoughts in there, so I preferred her with her shield in place slighter more than without it, although any scenario without her present at all was vastly superior to either scenario with her present. Yeah, so I am sure you have figured this out by now, but I do not like her and I was not happy about having to run next to her during our first real hunting trip off of the island.

Eliza was not happy about the situation either and she made her opinion very clear by tripping me. She stuck her foot out into my path as we ran and I went flying, while she burst out into a fit of giggles. I picked myself up and continued running, quickly catching back up to her and my dad, despite the large gap that had formed when I fell and the fact that they had kept moving. I was a lot faster than the two of them and they both were faster than the others, so all three of us were running far below our maximum speeds, and I just ran at full speed for a few seconds and was caught back up.

'Just like his mother; my son is the world's only clumsy vampire,' my dad was thinking when I caught up.

'I'm not clumsy, Eliza tripped me again!' I countered.

'I didn't see that,' he replied in his thoughts.

'Well she did and you never see anything.'

"Eliza, don't trip your brother," he scolded, turning to my sister, who had a giant grin plastered across her face.

"Yes Dad, it won't happen again," she replied, most likely lying. She always lied to him and got away with it, not because she was a good liar, but because of her shield.

We ran for miles only encountering caribou, wolves, and small animals, stopping frequently to hunt. There were a few fights over wolves, because everyone wanted one and no one wanted to have caribou instead, but my dad and Uncle Emmett quickly put an end to the disputes. And we all stopped and waited whenever anyone brought down anything, because the adults wanted us to stick together, but once the animal was drained, we were off again.

We were ten miles and a dozen animals in when Scryan stopped, because he felt a vision coming. One moment he was swinging from branch to branch, propelling himself over the large gaps between trees and the next he was putting the brakes on hard and clinging to the trunk of a pine tree. Eliza, Dad, and I had all been monitoring his thoughts and waiting for this, so the three of us were there instantly, watching from underneath the tree and waiting to find out what the vision would foretell.

Jackson and Allison, the other two Whitlock children who had been swinging through the trees with Scryan, noticed too and doubled back around to wait for their brother. But Uncle Emmett, Lily, Violet, Aiden, and Adriel were all running ahead of us and none of them had noticed that we had stopped. Dad was telling me in my head that I had to call them back here, so I did, starting with Uncle Emmett.

No sooner had I told everyone to fall back and wait for the vision, than Scryan finally saw what was so important that we all had to stop to see: there was a human close by in the forest and with his current trajectory, Adriel would run into him in two seconds. I instantly relayed the message to Adriel to halt in his tracks and then told Uncle Emmett of the danger and instructed him to grab Adriel.

The warning came just in time, because Adriel had not yet smelled what was in front of him and Uncle Emmett was able to get his arms around him in time. Violet was also nearby and no one had warned her, so she kept on running, closing the distance between her and the unwitting human. But my dad was already running towards the human, trying to get closer to the source of the problem, just in case, when Scryan's vision shifted.

Dad was still monitoring Scryan's vision, so he knew instantly that Violet was too close; he even knew a moment before she actually caught scent of the human. She lost all control over her body and there was not a rational thought in her head as she took off after the delicious scent. We had practiced smelling human before in a controlled environment, but never in the middle of a hunt, and she was not about to pass this test on her own. But luckily for her and the human, my dad was there.

My dad intercepted Violet, being quite a bit faster than her, and wrapped her in his arms before she could make contact with the unsuspecting human. She thrashed, gnashed her teeth, and growled. Dad had her tight, so she did not break free, but the human heard the noise and turned around to look. He took a few steps in the direction of the noise, bringing him three feet closer to the danger, and saw Violet struggling in my dad's arms.

"Hey! What're you doing to her? Let her go!" the human shouted, trying to be brave.

I quickly scanned his thoughts, to see how this looked from his perspective and found out that his name was Jean. He was out here hunting for caribou, so he had a rifle with him, and he was foolish enough to want to use it against my dad. Dad was a lot bigger than Violet and Jean thought that he was either trying to rape or kidnap her.

Jean did not notice the sharp snapping teeth or the hungry, wild look in Violet's eyes and she looked to be about the age of a twelve year old human, so he quickly placed her in the role of damsel in distress. Dad had both of his arms wrapped around her middle and Jean assumed that the growling noises were coming from him, not Violet, so Dad looked like he was attacking her; the fact that violet was kicking and screaming, trying to break free, was not helping.

As the only telepath in the group, it was my responsibility to pass along information, so I quickly and silently told my dad and uncle what I had learned from Jean. Adriel was no longer in danger of coming too close to the human, because he had stopped long before he smelled him, and was still in control of his faculties, so Uncle Emmett decided to let him go. Aiden was right there waiting and took his little brother under his arm instantly, just in case something else were to happen.

And once Emmett was free of his charge, he approached his daughter, saying, "Calm down Vi. Edward, give her to me."

Dad complied and handed Violet over to her father, making sure Emmett had a firm hold of her, before turning to the human.

"Sorry about that. My niece, Violet, had a little lover's quarrel with her boyfriend over there," dad said pointing to Adriel, who was just visible through the trees. "She tried to run off, which would be very dangerous out here, and I was closest, so I grabbed her."

I thought that this was a good story and I would have bought it, but Jean was too fixated on how big of a guy Uncle Emmett was. Jean did not reply, but began to watch Uncle Emmett, listening to what he was saying.

"Vi, remember what I taught you. You need to get a hold of yourself. Come on sweetie, you can do this," Uncle Emmett was saying and Violet was listening. She was holding her breath, calming down, and beginning to come to her senses now that the smell was not overwhelming her. Her lungs and throat still burned from the polluted air already infiltrating her body, but it was bearable now and she was in control again.

'Pretend to cry, Vi, and make it look like you and Adriel got in a fight about something,' I projected, well aware that Jean had yet to buy our story.

Then I projected similar messages to Adriel, Aiden, Uncle Emmett, and my dad, letting them all know what role they needed to play in this little charade. Aiden was the first to respond and he dropped his arms from around Adriel, taking his hand instead, so that it would look more like brotherly support after a fight than restraint during a kidnapping. Then the two brothers slowly stepped closer, so that Jean could see them more easily.

"Sorry Vi, I didn't mean it like that. I love you, please come back and talk to me," Adriel said, playing along.

Violet continued to regain control of herself and Uncle Emmett shifted from a more constraining hold to a more comforting pose, trying to make himself look more like an innocent father comforting his daughter than a kidnapper restraining a child.

"You see?" my dad asked the human. "There's nothing to worry about. Her dad's here and he'll take care of this little spat."

"Her dad?" Jean asked, not having realized yet that Emmett was Violet's father, despite how much they looked alike.

Violet was playing along now and had just enough air in her lungs to say a few words. "Dad, just let me get away from Adriel. He's such a jerk," she said. It sounded strained and forced, but Jean interpreted it as emotional.

"No, I'm not going to let my baby girl run off into the forest by herself. Now if you really won't let him apologize, then we can go home. Uncle Edward can stay here with the boys and pack up the camp ground," Uncle Emmett said and Violet nodded.

"Go ahead Em, I have the boys and the camp site under control," Dad replied.

Uncle Emmett turned to leave with Violet, but Jean was still not convinced and was considering calling the police, so I projected to Adriel, 'The human's not buying it, you need to stop them from leaving and try to apologize again.'

"Wait! Vi, will you please just give me a chance to explain?" Adriel pleaded. He sounded sincere, but he was thinking, 'Why me? Why do I have to keep apologizing when Uncle Edward's the one who grabbed her?'

"Fine, explain," Violet spat, running out of breath, but not daring to breathe in more.

Adriel did not know what to say, but Scryan, who was still clinging to his tree and stuck in the future, had heard several versions of what he could say next. I had been paying more attention to Jean's thoughts and not enough to Scryan's, so I had to get the visions after the fact from my dad. Dad had even already analyzed each possible scenario and chosen the one he thought sounded the most realistic. And as soon as I picked the appropriate lines out of Dad's head, I passed them along to Adriel.

"I'm sorry I kissed you Vi. I know that it was too soon and I should've waited, but your lips just looked too perfect! I won't do it again if you'll just forgive me," Adriel said pleadingly. Jean thought he was pleading with Violet, but he was really pleading with Jean to buy it, because he thought kissing was gross, which was one of the many differences between humans and vampires; humans mature much more quickly than we do.

Violet did not have enough air to reply, so she just nodded and buried her face in her father's chest, and tried to make it look like she was crying. She was not a good actress and I was not buying it, but Jean bought it and thought she was really crying. And since he was finally convinced that there was no need to call the authorities, I passed along the good news and Uncle Emmett slipped back into the trees with his daughter.

The threat was now over, but there was still a show to put on, so Dad turned to Adriel and said, "I better not find out that you've been kissing my niece again boy, now let's pack up camp and you can explain to your father why you're back so early."

"Yes sir," Adriel replied, turning to leave with Aiden, following the same path Uncle Emmett and Violet had taken.

"Again, sorry about that, but you know how melodramatic twelve year olds can be. The little tiff seems to be over for now and my brother and I will watch those two more carefully in the future," Dad said to Jean, before turning and following the others.

Jean nodded and went back to his hunting, Scryan came out of his vision, the crisis was avoided, and the hunt continued.

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><p>Author's Note: This story is nominated for multiple iSparkle awards! Please vote for me at theisparkleawards (dot) moonfruit (dot) com<p>

Especially for the most quotable award, because my piano quote is killer. I know you remember the piano thing, so vote now, because voting is only open until May 11th!

Also, The Gall Stone of Doom is up for an Eclipse award at twilighteclipseawards (dot) blogspot (dot) com . If you've gotten this far, you must love Gall Stones, so please go vote!


	12. Book1 Carlisle ch6

Book 1- Carlisle- ch.6

Carlisle POV:

Peter and Charlotte had already moved back to America. They went back to Texas and enrolled their children in public school, but they still stopped by regularly to help us out with various things. When they came they brought their hosts, allowing me to have one last chat with them. They still thought that I was a researcher working on the cure for New Ebola and I had told them that they and the other hosts received the last of the cure and that I was trying to raise more money to make another batch of the cure. Now I told them that all was not going well with the second batch and that I was having trouble reproducing the miraculous cure, so that they would not be expecting New Ebola to be cured any time soon.

I told all of the formerly New Ebola infected hosts the same story when they left the island and I planned on announcing my complete failure in a few years. Once a decade passes and I still cannot recreate the medicine that had cure the hosts, they will begin to accept that the first batch was nothing more than a fluke and that I cannot do it again. It has to be this way, because we could never produce enough eggs to save everyone with New Ebola and the hosts have to be told something so that they do not get suspicious.

Everyone was starting to disperse, including the Romanians who were going back to Africa to get acquainted with the Nigerian coven now that Stefan and Uwa were engaged. A wedding was coming up and the two families needed to get together to plan it. The Irish left too, because like Peter and Charlotte, they wanted to enroll their hosts in school back home. And the Amazonians, Denalis, and hybrids were the first to go, so that only left a few nomads passing by on the island. We always had guests stopping by and Esme would have to have accommodations built for them in addition to our regular four houses.

Jasper and I spent a great deal of time discussing the details of the new government, but we were not ready to pack up and move south just yet. There were a lot of things that needed doing first, although moving south and setting up a new capital was always our goal. There was the usual stuff to deal with, like Esme had to find a property with enough land and build our new house. Only that was a lot more work now because we would need a lot of supplementary buildings, like we have here. We will need a school house, a capital building, a blood manufacturing facility, and an egg education facility. The kids wanted a racetrack, but as of right now, we were not planning on building them one. Maybe if we were there long enough they would get one, but for now they would have to make do without.

And besides all the buildings that needed to be completed, there was a lot of political groundwork that had to be done. Most vampires had still not made the pilgrimage to our island to meet my family and see the children for themselves and we did not want to interrupt the steady flow of visitors we had been getting, so we would not move until everything was ready. At first vampires came to see the coven that had defeated the Volturi and were in charge now. But now the visitors tended to be mated pairs with eggs ready to implant or were expecting to disgorge eggs very shortly.

I had been concentrating on organizing on recruiting vampires for our new congress when everything had to be put on hold, because Edward received a call from Renesmee. She and the other hybrids were living in La Push with their children, but she and Jacob had gone to Washington DC to meet with the Washington State representatives, because of his status as chief of the Quileutes. Everything was fine until Seth decided to join them and bring his pregnant wife and hybrid daughter along.

The first hybrid children had been born on our island, but besides that, they had been confined to the La Push reservation for the entirety of their short lives. They were not a danger to others, but they were young and the hybrids wanted to protect their children from outsiders. And they did not know how the human, vampire, and shifter physiologies would combine, so in the beginning, they decided it was best to keep the children hidden away from prying eyes.

Now Nessie has two children, Leah has three, and Jennifer has one and there had been no serious problems with any of those children. Sure they shifted shapes from the time they were born and having an archaeopteryx flying around, a species that has been extinct since the time of the dinosaurs, caused quite the stir. But once the children were a year or two old and knew how to control their shifting, there was no reason to keep them locked up away from human society, so Seth did not think twice about bringing his pregnant half vampire wife and their daughter Daniela with him to DC.

Daniela was an adult now and although her skin sparkled slightly and she was a shade lighter than the Quileutes, she could pass for a regular hybrid shape-shifter, especially because she was the only one so far that took the shape of a wolf. No, it was not Daniela's presence that caused a stir, but that of her mother Jennifer, who was quite obviously pregnant. The humans of course had no idea that there was anything unusual going on, but there were other shape-shifters from other tribes present.

In addition to the Quileutes, there were two other tribes of Native Americans in the United States with shape-shifters. The shifters of the Iroquois in New York State took the shape of a giant beaver and the Navajo Nation in Arizona were giant eagles; both tribes at shifter representatives in DC. One of the New York congressmen, Chad Deerfoot, was even a shifter himself and when he came across Jennifer, he realized immediately that her pregnancy was unusual.

Chad and the other shifters were aware that three of the Quileutes shifters had imprinted on and subsequently married vampire hybrids. They were morally outraged at the time, but their tribes had very little interaction or political authority back then, and since it was common knowledge that vampires were infertile, there was no way to mix species, so they let it go. But with the last American Revolution, all three tribes had increased in power and importance and were no longer isolated on their respective reservations.

When Mr. Deerfoot noticed that Jennifer, a half-vampire, was pregnant, he was livid. Finding out that vampire and shifter hybrids could indeed reproduce and that a cross-breed was already on the way, was too much for him to tolerate and so he called up the chief of his tribe and relayed the news. From there the other tribe with shifters, the Navajo, were notified, and the situation spiraled out of control. And since Alice and Scryan could not see the hybrids, we had no warning.

Nessie called Edward to tell him that she and the other hybrids were trapped in DC surrounded by a mob of angry shifters who had come in from New York and Arizona specifically to destroy them and the unborn abomination inside Jennifer. And since there were so few Quileute shifters present, they were outnumbered and had no chance of escape. Jacob was currently in talks with the other leaders, to buy them time, but it seemed inevitable that Jennifer's baby would have to be sacrificed or they would all die.

Luckily our family was now situated in a prime position to intervene and offer a third choice and a chance for Jennifer and the others to escape. We dropped everything and organized a rescue party. We were limited in our rescue options, because the hybrids were less resilient than vampires, so we could not arrange a rescue by water. A helicopter rescue was the obvious solution, but then the Navajo took the form of giant eagles and could fly, so it would be risky. Luckily DC is a highly human inhabited region and the Navajo would not be able to transform if humans were watching without drawing undue attention to themselves. Keeping the secret is vital to us all and they would not dare risk it.

Thus it was decided that we would fly in during the middle of the day when there were the most witnesses to rescue the hybrids. We would need many strong fighters to hold off the massive mob of enemy shifters, which was a problem because a helicopter could only hold so many people and there were five hybrids who needed rescuing. It was decided that we would take two helicopters, with eleven vampires split between the two, to DC.

Bella, Edward, Emmett, Vladimir, Stefan, Uwa, Randall, Fred, Peter, Garrett, and myself all agreed to go, but since we were scattered about the globe, it took a day just to get everyone gathered in one place. Peter ran north from Texas, meeting us and our helicopter in Virginia. Vladimir, Stefan, and Uwa swam from Romania, where they had been gathering up their things for their extended stay in Nigeria. And Garrett came from Alaska, while everyone else had been on our island to begin with.

Jacob was good at both lying and stalling and had managed to convince the other shifters that Jennifer still have months to go in her pregnancy, and thus no rush to terminate. And he made certain not to give away the existence of the other vampire shifter hybrids, while insisting that this pregnancy was just a fluke, because in all of these years, this was the first pregnancy among the three. But as good of a liar as he was, by the time we arrived, it was apparent that he would not be able to stall for much longer. The hotel where the hybrids were staying was surrounded by shifters, in their human form. They were trying to keep a low profile and stay under the radar of the humans, but I could see dozens of them as we hovered overhead and that was just the ones who were out in the open. There was no telling how many were hiding in the many hotel rooms.

Bella called Nessie and the hybrids as we were flying into the city and told them to be ready. She stayed on the line and gave them the play-by-play, so that the escape was perfectly timed. One moment we were just a speck in the distance and the next the hybrids were running out onto the roof of the hotel and we were coming in for a landing. Vladimir and Stefan, our two helicopter pilots, did not land the aircrafts, opting instead to hover above the ground for a fast and easy take off.

Buying two helicopters and teaching Stefan, Vladimir, and several of the others, to fly turned out to be a very smart move, because they were proving increasingly useful. Having human pilots for this mission would never do and after that battle in Vienna when we eliminated Mario, the Volturi's psychic, we did not think renting a helicopter would be prudent. We reimbursed the company, but I felt bad for putting the humans out like that while they waited for their helicopter to be replaced. Plus, the helicopters came in handy when I was flying around visiting the other covens in my efforts to put together the first vampire congress.

Vladimir was an excellent pilot, because he had the most practice, what with flying me and the others all over the world on a regular basis. The vampires on his helicopter managed to pull Jennifer, Nessie, and Daniela aboard without even getting off the craft. Since they had the most defenseless members of the hybrid group with them, they flew off immediately, leaving my helicopter to pick up Seth and Jacob. Stefan flew in low and Edward and Emmett jumped off to help Seth and Jacob fend off the first of the shifters to respond.

I saw Edward rush in so fast that he caused confusion among the shifters. In the moment it took the enemy to recover, Seth freed himself from the clutches of one of the Iroquois and ran towards Edward. Edward did not miss a beat, picking Seth up and throwing him up into the air, towards our helicopter before Seth even realized what the plan was. Peter and I reached out and caught him, before pulling him aboard. And then there was only one more to go.

I was not worried about Emmett and Edward, because I was sure they could take care of themselves, even when surrounded by a homicidal mob of shifters in their human form. The shifters were not much of a threat as humans and our helicopter was well within range of Emmett and Edward's jumping abilities. But the shifters were not staying human and my boys still had to rescue Jacob.

Emmett was fighting with his back to Jacob and trying to keep the shifters off of themselves, without actually hurting our enemy. This was a rescue mission, not a battle, and we still had every hope that peace talks would eventually lead to a peaceful solution. But if we went for the kill now, it would be impossible to convince these people to sit down and discuss a truce later, so my boys were trying to incapacitate, not kill, their attackers, which would have been a lot easier if all of the shifters stayed in their human forms.

As soon as it became apparent that they were losing, the shifters began to turn, one by one, into giant beavers and eagles. There were no humans on the roof to notice, but still, this was a risky situation to be in, because if a hotel employee happened to come up here, the shifters' secret would be out. There was no way to hide dozens of giant eagles and beavers attacking what looked to be two humans.

And to make matters worse, the eagles started flying up and attacking our helicopter. Peter climbed out onto the tail, to protect it from damage, while Seth and I each leaned out the open doors and knocked down any birds that we could reach. Stefan was just trying to keep us level with all of the eagles flying around us. Hitting one could damage the blades of our helicopter, which would impair balance and cause the aircraft to go down.

"Can I fly us higher, to get away from them?" Stefan asked.

"No," I replied in between striking at the incessant eagles. I was trying to knock them out, without killing them. "If you fly too high, the humans on the ground outside might see and the boys won't be able to get back on. Hold us steady for another minute."

Stefan complied and I was relieved to see that Edward had made his way over to help Emmett and Jacob. Again he was able to cause a distraction and this time Emmett tossed Jacob up to us, before jumping himself. I caught hold of Jacob's hand from my door and pulled him up by one arm, while Emmett caught hold of the bar below Seth's door and pulled himself up. A moment later Edward was jumping into the helicopter and Stefan started flying away.

The eagles followed us for a mile or so, but once the humans started coming out of the buildings to see the sight of a helicopter being chased by giant eagles, they backed off and returned to the hotel roof. We all made it safely back to our island and the eagles in DC were a major story in the human news all afternoon, but then a group of humans took credit for it, claiming it was a clever publicity stunt to sell Eagle Eye brand designer sunglasses. The eagles were never seen again, so the story eventually died down, but the fight between the Quileutes and other shape-shifters was only just beginning.

Jacob and Nessie's two sons, Link and Alex, were still in La Push along with Nahuel and Leah, and their three children, Anaea, Oren, and River. And so no sooner had we arrived safely on Cullen Island than the first helicopter was taking off to retrieve the other seven hybrids. This second trip went much more smoothly, because there were no Iroquois or Navajo shifters waiting to attack. And so all of the hybrids were safe once more, but the dispute was not resolved and the other shifters would invariably retaliate.

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><p>Author's Note: The beginning of the story is an odd place for the epic fight, but this is a story feature time discrepancies, so this is where it falls. Any ideas regarding what should happen? Fight scenes are not my strong point, so any and all ideas are welcome :)<p> 


	13. Book2 Masen ch2

Book2-Masen-ch.

Masen's POV:

We went on several more hikes through the woods after that first trip and we came across a great many humans out hiking, hunting, and fishing. There were a few more close calls, but there were no accidents, so my dad and Uncle Emmett decided to move on to more crowded places, like a children's playground. We had a playground back on our island, but none of us had played in it in years, because it was super lame and Grandma Esme always complained whenever anyone did anything remotely dangerous, so no one was particularly excited about going.

"No laptops at the park," Uncle Jasper said, grabbing Allison's laptop just as we were about to leave for the playground.

"Then just what exactly do you propose I do there?" she asked sarcastically.

"Smell humans and try not to bite them," he replied.

"We're supposed to be blending in! If I go up to them and start sniffing they're gonna call the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or something. No kids our age are gonna be there," Allison replied.

"Yeah Dad, and we can't exactly go on the slide," Jackson added. "Can't we go snowboarding instead? There'll be humans on the slopes."

"No, you're going to the playground today and you're gonna behave too. If you want to go snowboarding you can go tomorrow," Uncle Jasper said, ending the conversation.

After that Uncle Emmett ushered Allison, Jackson, and the rest of us into the cars and we were off. We were all crammed into two stupid vans, with my dad driving one and Uncle Emmett driving the other. These were not the cool race cars that Aunt Rosalie builds for us, but big slow clunkers that seat seven people each; they were beyond lame. This whole trip was lame and I really hoped there were no human kids our age there to witness our humiliation.

But luck was not on my side, because as soon as we got there we saw a group of kids our age playing quidditch. The sport had evolved from its days as a joke sport played by a bunch of college kids running around on a field chasing after a boy with a sock; it was now much more similar to the original game described in the books. The goal posts were only twenty feet in the air, the electric snitch was programmed to stay within the boundaries of the field, and the hover brooms had bicycle seats and made quite a racket like a motorcycle, but it looked totally awesome.

"Can we go play with them?" Jackson asked my dad the moment we pulled up and saw them. The Whitlock kids were in our car, while the Cullen boys were in Uncle Emmett's car.

"No, you can talk to them, but you can't play sports with them," dad answered.

"Why not?" Jackson asked petulantly.

"It's dangerous for the humans. Our competitiveness will cause us to show our real strength and speed and the humans will get hurt in the process," Dad replied. Did I mention my dad was lame? Really lame.

"Okay, then let's go get our own quidditch set and play by ourselves. We can ask these kids where they bought theirs and that'll count as our human interaction," Jackson replied, still going on about playing.

"No. If you want to play on our grounds, then we'll get you a set, but no sports off of our property. What if you damage the goal posts, the ground, or the trees?" Dad asked in reply.

"Scryan, why didn't you tell me there was gonna be a quidditch pitch here?" Jackson asked, ignoring my father and turning to his brother.

"One, I didn't care, because I don't wanna play. Two, Uncle Lame-o was never gonna let us play. Three, I was busy having a vision of the prank Ashley and I are gonna play on you tonight when we get home; it's gonna be a good one," Scryan replied. They used to call my dad Stupid Uncle, but he always complained about that, so they started calling him Uncle Lame-o years ago. Eliza and I thought it was an appropriate descriptor for him, so we encouraged it behind his back.

"How can you not care about quidditch?" Jackson asked outraged.

Scryan shrugged, but it was my dad who replied, "Are you kids ever going to get out of this car or are we just going to sit here all day?"

"I vote for sit here all day," Allison replied, folding her arms to show her displeasure with this trip. She was hoping they would leave her in the car so that she could use her cell phone to interlink with her laptop at home, but she was my best friend, and I was hoping she would entertain me today.

"No, no laptop," my dad replied, reading her mind. "You are all going to get out of this car and act normal or you will be grounded tonight and just have to come back here tomorrow."

'I knew I should have sat next to Masen,' Allison thought, reaching back to touch me between the seats. She was in the row in front of me with Scryan, while I was in the back row with Jackson, and Eliza was in the front with Dad.

"You can use Masen to shield yourself from me all you want, but I am not going to forget your plan," Dad said. "Now Emmett's group is already out of their car and setting up a pretend picnic, despite the fact that he drives like a snail and we got here ten minutes before him. So, either you kids can get out and get on with it, or we will be back tomorrow and I will be forced to tell your father. You can bet there will be no new quidditch set or anything else until you cooperate."

"Come on Scry, let's go," Eliza said jumping out of the car.

Scryan followed after her. He took her hand when she reached out for him and the two of them strolled over to Uncle Emmett's picnic together. I stayed back with Jackson and Allison and waited for them to make a decision, because they were my two best friends and I was not about to move first. Plus, I did not want to be seen following Eliza, no matter what the circumstances and certainly not for something as trivial as one of Dad's groundings.

"Fine, we'll go," Jackson conceded, looking at Lily pick little white flowers from the grass. He wanted to join her and then convince her to take off to the forest with him where they could play with her shield.

Allison nodded and thought, 'Climb over the seat without letting go, so we don't have to break skin contact. I still want to use my cell to link up to my laptop and I don't want your dad to be suspicious when we sneak off.'

I did as I was told and climbed over Scryan's collapsed seat, then slid over towards Allison and out the door, without breaking skin contact. Jackson followed after us, but went out Scryan's open door instead.

"There, that was not so bad, was it?" my dad asked rhetorically.

Since it was a rhetorical question, none of us bothered to answer him. Instead we went off in the direction of Uncle Emmett's fake picnic and started pretending to eat. We had never done this before and it was rather disgusting and we were not even putting it in our mouths. We started by crumbling what Uncle Emmett called "crackers" and pieces of "plain bread," because he said we would need to know what all of these food items were once we were in the human world.

Uncle Emmett went on with his food lecture, progressing to nastier and nastier looking food and trying to explain how and when they were eaten and what they tasted like to humans. Of course all of these foods tasted like chalk to him and his explanations were pretty bad. For example, he said that something called "strawberries" taste like "sweet strawberries," which was no help at all. Dad was a little better, because he said, "To humans, they taste kind of like they smell, even though to us they taste like rotten sludge."

After a very long, mostly boring, lecture on human food, they finally dismissed us to go play with the other kids and began to clean up the mess they had made. Allison and I followed the others to where the kids our age were taking a break from playing quidditch. They were all leaning up against a wall and drinking colored water and talking about who had the best broom. Apparently the more life-like ones were more fashionable, but the ones with the wider seats were more comfortable, and the ones with the bigger hover engine were more stable and flew better.

"Hey, we could use a few more players, do any of you kids what to play?" one of the kids asked when he saw Jackson practically drooling over his broom.

"I'd love to play, but my lame-ass uncles over there," Jackson started, pointing to my dad and Uncle Emmett, "won't let us play, because we might get hurt. And if we get hurt, our aunties will be mad at them and they won't get laid for a week. We have to wait until my dad can take us."

"Hey, my dad will still get laid; it's only Uncle Edward that won't get laid," Lily said, making sure she used the terms Uncle Emmett had taught us yesterday. He said that humans our age had dirty mouths and were always talking about sex and we needed to too in order to fit in.

'Come on, we should sneak away now,' Allison thought, tugging on my arm.

I followed and she led me into the trees on the edge of the park. We climbed one that was about a hundred feet tall, stopping about halfway up to sit on a particularly wide branch. Once we were seated, she activated her cell phone by tapping on it. She wore her cell on her hand and chose the clear option, so that it blended in with her skin. Most of the others in our family did the same with theirs, but I noticed that flashy odd-placed cells were in fashion among the humans.

Our cell phones were nothing like the big clunky phones that our parents had when we first emerged, but had long since evolved into the small, thin, square patches that we have today. We stick them on our skin or clothing, wherever we want, and they project whatever image we want. They contain a small computer and hold so much data that most kids would be happy to play on their cell for hours, but not Allison. Her laptop was a hundred times faster than her cell and she wanted the speed, because she hates waiting.

So I watched and waited as Allison activated her phone, dialed into her laptop, and went back to work on her latest project. She was working on making a new flavor of synthetic blood and was obsessive with monitoring the project. She used blood stem cells from the Sudanese this time, when the original was made with Classic human, so this batch was expected to be nuttier, but not quite as sweet.

'If I can just get the Sudanese blood to culture, then I can work on modifying it. I want to make it sweeter by crossing it with Classic human,' she thought to me.

'Okay, now you've checked and my mom plated the cells just like she was supposed to and added fresh media to all of the vats of cells, right?' I asked.

'Yeah, it looks like she did.'

'And the oxygen and pH levels are within normal limits?'

"Yeah.'

'Well then can we play that online game of yours?'

'In a minute, I just want to do this analysis real quick,' she replied, pulling up a data set.

I waited for a few minutes for her to finish and then she pulled up the alien game I liked. This game was really cool, because we could customize almost everything about it, from the way the aliens looked, to the details of their life cycle, to the planet they lived on, to their houses, and how they fight their wars. Allison and I had a pair of blob-like aliens that were commanding a squadron of spaceships and waging war against a stock planet of standard blue humanoids. Our blobs had to rendezvous with others of their kind to join together into a massive super creature that then sporulated to produce offspring, all of which were Allison's ideas that we had programmed into the game. This game was really cool, so we played for hours.

Allison and I played until Jackson and Lily came running through the trees, interrupting our concentration. They stopped just under our tree and Lily said, "My dad said it's time to go." She was thinking about how she and Jackson had been wreaking havoc with her shield when Scryan and Eliza came and found them and relayed the message from her father.

Allison exited the game and we jumped down. "What's our story regarding what we've been up to 'Son?" Allison asked.

"Scry said that we were all chilling out here with a couple of humans our age," Jackson replied.

'And how are we gonna get away with that? My dad will know you're lying,' I projected.

"You'll have to maintain contact with us until we can ditch him," Jackson replied.

"And how's he gonna touch everyone?" Allison asked.

"He goes out with Lily first, while we hang back. Uncle Emmett will leave first. Scryan's pretty good at hiding his thoughts, so you don't need to shield him. Eliza's in on it, but she has a shield of her own," Jackson replied.

"And what about me and you?" Allison asked her brother.

"We hang back, talking to the imaginary humans. Uncle Edward will call for us, but we won't come, so Masen will volunteer to go get us. Then he comes back with both of us and the three of us maintain skin contact all the way home. He'll have to come in the house with us, but he can hang out for a few hours before going home," Jackson replied.

'My dad's so gonna be suspicious,' I said.

"Yeah, but let's just get it over with. It's not like we actually wanted to hang out at this lame ass park with a bunch of humans," Lily replied.

I nodded and linked elbows with her for our walk out to Uncle Emmett's car. Dad was suspicious, like I knew he would be, but not until after Lily left with her dad. There was a minute when she was unshielded as they drove away, but she made sure to think about something else during that period of time, so it was not her. It was me running back into the forest for Allison and Jackson and refusing to let go of either of them that set his alarm bells off.

In the end Dad let me go over to their house and did not question me too much, but when I got home he had already gotten the truth out of Eliza. So we will have to go to the playground and actually interact with humans tomorrow, only this time Violet, Aiden, and Adriel do not have to go, because they followed directions the first time. Suck-ups.


	14. Book1 Carlisle ch7

Carlisle POV:

Seth and Jacob were once again occupying the werewolves' apartment complex, so I headed over there to talk with them. They saw this situation as their responsibility to solve and so they brushed me off with nothing more than a cursory, "Thank you," and a "I assure you, we're fine. Just concentrate on the women." Then they retreated to Jacob's study to discuss their options and wait for Edward's return with the hybrids from La Push.

And so I turned my attention to the female hybrids, who were gathered in the living room of Seth and Jennifer's apartment. When I go there I found that I was not the only one interested in how they were doing, as Jasper had made his way over to the three hybrid women. Jasper had moved in to calm them, and of course greet his niece, Renesmee. They had not seen each other in a few years now; not seen the birth of her second son Alex and the family's ill-timed move back to La Push. And so Jasper calmed and relaxed the women and chatted idly with Nessie about all of the new developments in her life. And now that they were both parents, they had that to talk about too.

While Jasper was attending to Renesmee, I turned to Jennifer, to check on her well-being and that of her unborn child. Physically, she seemed fine after the rescue, but mentally she was shaken up. "Just typical expectant mother worry," Jasper said before dampening it down with his skill in that way that only he could.

Jennifer's pregnancy seemed normal, as far as I could tell with my limited experience of hybrid pregnancies. Being a half-vampire herself, her body was much more capable of carrying and nourishing a hybrid fetus than Bella's had been all of those centuries ago. There was none of the bruising and cracked ribs and if it were not for the rock hard skin of the mother and the nearly impenetrable amniotic sack, I would say that this was a normal pregnancy. But just to be safe and mostly to give me the opportunity to test out my new machine, I offered, "I have a CAT-scan here. We could use it to look at your baby, the way humans do with ultrasounds."

Jennifer's face lit up with happiness in response and she said, "Oh yes please, that'd be wonderful. I wonder if it can tell me if it's a boy or a girl?"

"We'll see in a minute if you'll just follow me," I replied.

Daniela looked back and forth between her mother and me for several seconds, before looking back at Nessie and Jasper, who were still talking animatedly. Apparently Jasper's children were nearby and if Daniela stayed, she would get the chance to see them. The look on her face made it clear that she was anxious and excited to meat real vampire children, so I took action and said, "It would be best if you stayed here. Your mother will be perfectly safe with me and we'll only be just down the way at out medical complex."

Daniela smiled brightly and gave her mother one last hug, before the two of us took off to the medical complex to find our one and only CAT-scan machine. It had been the latest model ten years ago when we started building up the facility for the hosts. It was a bit dusty, but it worked, and I was just thankful we had one now. I had wanted one so much when Nessie was pregnant the first time, but we were coming off of the war with the Volturi and I had so many more pressing concerns. Thus I barely had time to see the birth of my first great-grandson and I was forced to take a backset to Edward and let him administer all of the prenatal care. He was the one with the specialty in shape-shifters anyway.

It only took half an hour to complete the scan and then Jennifer and I were staring at the first three-dimensional picture ever taken of a hybrid fetus. She was halfway through the typical, if anything involving hybrids can be called typical, gestation period and the fetus looked to be half-way through a typical human gestation. If I did not know better, I would say that Jennifer was almost five months pregnant, when in reality I knew she was only three weeks, almost four.

"Would you like to know the sex?" I asked, after making sure everything else looked normal and in place.

"Yes, that would be so wonderful. I know that I'll know within the next month anyway, but it would be so nice to know now. I could even do a little online shopping beforehand," she rambled.

"She's another little girl," I revealed. Before I even got the second word out she was jumping up and throwing her arms around me in a death-hug.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for this. Not just for telling me that she's a girl, but also checking to make sure she's gonna be healthy. You don't know how worried I was with Daniela and her turning into a wolf right after she was born. She was so tiny! You didn't, ah, see anything weird with this one, did you?" She had started off with a high pitched screech, but by the end it was the desperate plea any mother uses when worried about her children.

"I did see some minor fluctuating in bone structure, especially in the cranial shape. I gave up trying to get a read on the arms and legs, because they kept flipping back and forth between two structures. I can't tell you what she will be, but it does seem fairly closed to human and I would be willing to bet she's a primate of some sort. But all of her internal organs are in the right place and she didn't seem to be missing any pieces, as a human or in her other form," I answered and braced myself for another round of thanks. I did not get it.

It was in that moment that Edward came in with the other hybrids. "Dad, it was really close. We could see the sea turning from the flips of the beavers' tails and a flock of eagles was approaching from the South East. We got out of there, but the tribe was left behind."

"Is everyone alright?" I asked taking my two great grandsons, Link an Alex, into my arms for a hug.

"We're all fine and I'm sure everyone in the tribe will be alright. Our presence was the real danger to them," Nahuel answered.

"I missed you two," I whispered to each other them before letting them go. They were both young adults and far too old for this sort of affection from their great grandfather.

"Please, we have plenty of warriors there to take care of both the Navajo and the Iroquois! Did you see them? There can't be more than two dozen of each," Leah said.

"Well either way, Seth and Jacob need to be informed. Where are they?" Edward asked.

"They're in Jake's apartment. And Nessie and Daniela were last seen talking with Jasper," I answered.

"I wish Alice and Scryan could see the hybrids," Edward said before disappearing in the direction of the werewolf apartments. Nahuel and Leah went with them, taking their three children. That just left me with Jennifer, Link, and Alex. "Well let's go find where Nessie and Daniela got off to, shall we?" I asked.

We found them gathered in the living room of my house along with Bella and her two children, the entire Whitlock clan, and my wife with my two remaining sons. Daniela was physically much older than our children, but ours had hundreds of years of experience on her, so they seemed to be enjoying each other's company. Nessie, on the other hand, had been speaking with the adults about possibly evacuating the island if the shifters find out about their presence. But once we entered the room, Link and Alex took off running to her and embraced her in a hug that belied how young they were at heart, despite having fully grown bodies.

"Mom! We were so worried about you when we heard what had happened!" Link exclaimed, still hugging his mother.

"Uncle Seth should've never let Aunt Jennifer be seen by the others like that! I can't believe he put you at risk!" Alex added.

"Alex, this had to happen sooner or later and there was no telling that they would over react like that. You shouldn't blame your uncle for things that aren't under his control," Nessie admonished her youngest son.

Alex was in that awkward stage in between a teenager and a young adult, but with the intellect of an adult and the emotional maturity of the six year old he was. The same had happened with Nessie's development where she looked grown and was smart enough to be grown years and years before she was grown. It made for quite a bit of tension between Edward, Bella, and Jacob, because Jacob became attracted to Nessie long before she could return his affections. And once Nessie did reach puberty, there was another awkward phase where she thought of him as a protective older brother and not as a potential mate. But they somehow managed to get through it without ripping any heads off and I knew the same would hold true for little Alex. In another twenty years his maturity level would catch up with the rest of him and he would be a fully functional hybrid adult.

Seeing the backwards way in which hybrids reach maturity made me feel oddly grateful for the slow and tedious maturation process in my own offspring. Not only do I have longer to bond with them and appreciate the joys of fatherhood, but also, their bodies to not finish maturing until their minds do. Sure the children were getting taller at a rate similar to humans, except a hundred times slower, but sexually they were already behind their human counterparts. Not one was entering puberty and if Alice was right, they would not do so until well after their brains were emotionally capable of understanding it. There is nothing worse than a sexually frustrated six year old hybrid who does not know what to do with it and I thanked the powers that watch over me every day for that.

Eventually the reunion broke down when Jennifer and Nessie took their children back to their old werewolf apartments to get things set up for the night. Jasper, Alice, and Bella took their families home and I enjoyed some rare peaceful moments with my wife and children. And then it was morning again, I set off to check on Jacob and Seth. I was not at all surprised when I found that Edward was still there, never having gone home the previous night. But I was surprised to see Leah was right alongside him; the three shifters had neglected to sleep this night.

"Carlisle, the other shifters are attacking the Quileutes," Edward said as soon as I walked in the door of Jacob's study.

They were gathered around a large desk strewn with maps, treaties, and old books on native legends. The three shifters were clearly exhausted from being up all night and then the escape from DC before that. I began to wonder just how much sleep they had gotten the previous night, because they looked as if they had spent that night on high alert too. Edward, being the only one who did not need to sleep in the group, was still fresh as ever, but he had a defeated hollow look in his eyes, like he had resigned himself that there was nothing that we can do.

"Our people can handle themselves," Leah snarled, as if this point had already been debated _ad infinitum_.

"We have more than enough wolves to handle to situation. There are only four dozen enemy shifters, total, and we have more than twice that in able bodied young wolves. More if we ask the older wolves to come out of retirement, which they will be more than willing to do to protect the tribe," Jacob vehemently insisted, letting his exhaustion color his voice.

"Our protectors won't have to fight at all once the other shifters realize that we're gone. I won't have our people put at risk because of my stupid mistake," Seth said, as if we would ever turn him and Jennifer over to the shifters to save the rest of us.

"That's exactly what he's thinking," Edward whispered to me. It was just within the hearing limits of the shifters, but they were too exhausted to notice.

"All we can do now is wait and see. We already got that call from the current Quil. The other shifters are trying to surround them out on the water and in the sky, but he has everything under control. He said he would call when his meeting with their leaders is over and there is nothing we can do but wait until then," Jacob added.

And so we waited. Edward and I convinced the three shifters to lie down and rest while we stood guard over their cell phones, but they were only asleep for a few hours before one of the phones rang. It was Jacob's and he was the first to spring up and answer it. The conversation was short and disjointed, what with only hearing Jacob's short replies, but then it ended and we all looked to him for answers.

"The shifters know that your helicopter came and took Leah and Nahuel away, along with several other people. None of them were close enough to see who we took or to guess why, other than possibly having guards to protect them. Quil is stalling, but the shifters want to know where we went. The Eagles tried to fly after the helicopter in La Push, but their flock was too far south when we arrived and they weren't able to catch us. A storm eroded our scent, further impeding them, and they had to call off the pursuit completely when our trail disappeared over Seattle. That was a great idea you had Edward, having Vladimir fly right through the most populated areas," Jacob said turning to Edward at the end.

"You would have done the same if you had been there," Edward replied curtly.

"So what we're left with is four dozen enemy shifters in La Push trying to get information out of Quil regarding our location. He said not to worry and that he quote, 'Will never tell,' and 'Will eat those mangy beavers and eagles alive before he lets them on our land.' So that buys us some time until the shifters find another way of figuring out where we are," Jacob finished.

* * *

><p>Author's note: the second anniversary of when I started writing Gall Stone is quickly approaching. What would you all like for your present? A Carlisle, Jasper, or Masen chapter?<p> 


	15. Book3 Jasper ch5

Jasper's POV:

It was only a matter of moments before another set of twins came to visit me. They started leading me back again, but I did not want to go. Before Charlotte and Peter moved back here to Houston there was no one in this State that I wanted to see again; in fact, there was no one left in this State that I had known that was still alive.

I had been born here in Houston and I had traveled through this area plenty of times with Maria, but my human acquaintances were all long gone, as were their vampire counterparts. Not only had Maria and her army fell in battle to another coven with another newborn army, but the coven that had controlled Houston back then was gone as well. The Volturi had wiped them and the rest of the newborn armies out long ago when they put an end to the newborn wars once and for all.

It had happened during the period of time when we were in self-induced exile on Cullen Island. The newborn wars had reached a new fervor and the madness was spreading after a period of relative peace. We had all hoped that the feuds would die down and cease after a time, but when they picked back up with even more vengeance than had been present before, the Volturi stepped in and cleaned house. And so every coven I had ever met in the South was gone and I did not want to travel back through time and see their fate for myself.

I stopped Kair and Kare and signed, "No, go back not I."

"I go Grandma," Kair signed back.

"Grandma sad you dead," Kare added.

This made absolutely no sense and I could not for the life of me figure out what my girls were talking about. I was not dead and Esme, their grandmother, was never in Houston, no matter how far back we went in time. "What?" I signed back, hoping for clarification that would bring about some much needed understanding.

"Grandma," Kair signed.

"Grandma," Kare agreed. "Now."

The girls were becoming less and less articulate by the day and after a few more attempts in which I gathered no additional information, I decided to give up and tell them my problem with going further back instead. "Go not me. See not dead friends," I signed, wondering if they would be able to understand all of those signs.

"I understand not," Kare signed.

"I go Grandma now," Kair added.

"Recent past go not I," I replied.

"We go fast," Kare signed.

"Pick up and run," Kair added.

I was not getting anywhere with them and I was stuck here with nowhere to go but back, so I decided to play along and see where they wanted to take me. Besides, I can always stop when we get to the end of the war. So I bent down and picked both girls up, ever mindful of their linker which connected their vampire leather bracelets. The short cord had been replaced with a longer one, so I coiled it up and handed it to Kare before walking into the past with my girls.

At first it was the same as before, and I walked slowly straight back in time. But then the slope of the wormhole began to increase until I was walking up a steep mountain into the sun, with no ground beneath the hard mesh of space-time that was under my feet. I was somewhat worried by this new development, but mostly I was curious as to where this would take me. Kair and Kare were excited to be on this journey with me and their excitement was rubbing off.

The wormhole looked to be about a mile above ground when it finally leveled off into a smooth peak before beginning to descend again. As we neared the ground and I took in the signs of the city below me, I realized that there was a huge difference. No longer were we in a modern city full of cars, flashing lights, and advertisements. Now we were in a field of long dry grass with cattle and the only human in sight was on a horse, galloping along a narrow dirt road that was on the other side of the field. This was a Houston similar to the one I had grown up in.

"Down," signed Kair about a hundred feet before the wormhole reached the ground.

"Down," agreed Kare.

I stopped and put the girls down and then followed after them as they crawled. They were much slower crawlers now that they were only two years old, but they were going even slower than was typical of them. In fact, they stopped just about every foot to tug and pull at the wormhole, so we were practically stationary for a time. But then the wormhole shifted and I suddenly understood what they were doing: they were moving the location of the first three dimensions of the wormhole and changing the place where the hole would open up.

Changing locales seemed like a good idea to me, because there was nothing but a ranch where our house will be, so I stopped and waited for them to finish. It took forever, because the tunnel only shifted by about one degree for every time the girls stopped and tried to turn it. And when they pushed it west, it only seemed to move about a foot each time. But then the tunnel had only moved an inch at a time for me, so they were obviously more skilled at it than I was.

After a few minutes I began to understand how they were moving the wormhole and decided to join in and help. At first my added muscle did not make much of a contribution, but then I really got the hang of it and it started jumping with every push. And just when I thought that we might be almost there, where ever there was, the LED lights on the girls' collars started to flash red and blue. "Love you," I signed as I watched them crawl away back to their own time.

I did not know where we were moving the wormhole too, so I sat down and waited for the girls to return, but then they were here again and we went right back to work moving the wormhole into position. We moved it past the ranch, down the road, past a farm and then a busy town center filled with shops and houses, until we got to another ranch. There was a barn and a chicken coop outside and I could hear chickens clucking and sheep baaing. There was a small garden, but it was hardly a farm and I doubted it would provide enough food to support the family that lived here; it was more of a supplement really.

The main activity here was clearly the ranch with several dozen heads of cattle out roaming the pasture, grazing on the tall brown grass. I counted eighteen milking cows and six bulls, some of which were probably used for oxen too. There were a few horses roaming around, but no one was out riding them today. Plus three sheep and however many chickens meant that this family was probably middle class; not rich, but definitely not starving.

It was unusual to see a ranch this size deserted and I began to wonder where everyone was. My question was answered when Kair and Kare steered our wormhole around to the front of the modest sized ranch house. The door was open and the house was clearly full of people. There seemed to be some sort of event going on inside and everyone was dressed in black. We pulled the wormhole in closer to the door and I was suddenly hit by a massive surge of grief. Some of the people were just sad, but many were absolutely heartbroken.

It did not take me long to realize that someone had recently died and that this was a wake. I was not sure who the girls wanted to see, but I was in no mood for a funeral, especially when I did not even know the person, so I decided that we needed to go further back in time.

"Go on," I signed to the girls and pushed back in time.

I saw the people leaving the house, walking backwards, and I kept going into the past until the coroner was gone and the deceased individual was still alive. But whoever she was, she was old and sick and I did not want to spent the last days of her life here with her, so I kept going back, hoping to find another less depressing time.

"Stop. Grandma here," Kair signed.

"Yes Grandma," Kare added, shattering what little hope I had that the person they wanted to see was not the person who lay dying in that house. Anything would be better than that, but later when I stopped to think about it, I realized that we would have to meet at the end of her life, given that I was traveling backwards in time. And so we stopped and watched.

"Doc, how's Mam doing?" asked a tall man, standing in the living room, just outside the bedroom. I watched the scene unfold through the open front door with my wormhole still out on the front lawn. He had curly blond hair that was cropped short, but it was flecked with numerous silver strands, showing his age. His sad brown eyes spoke of his concern and he reminded me of my Grandpa; he was even around the age my grandpa was in my memories of him, back when I was a little boy.

"Jeremiah, I'm afraid it doesn't look good for Mrs. Ashley. She's old and weak and just can't fight off this infection," another man, presumably the doctor, answered. He was of average height with a thick build and black hair and he did not remind me of anyone I knew. From what he said, I gathered that the blond man was named Jeremiah and the old woman was Mrs. Ashley. Ashley seemed to live here in this ranch house with her middle aged son Jeremiah and his family.

"Your Mam's a fighter; she could still pull through," said a woman who was holding Jeremiah's hand and standing by his side, but angled slightly behind him. She was of average height with long brown hair and I could feel her love for him, so I knew that she was his wife, but I still did not know her name.

"She doesn't have long left now," the doctor said.

"I understand," Jeremiah replied before sending the doctor on his way.

Jeremiah went into the back bedroom to check on his mother, before returning to take care of the ranch. His children were already hard at work outside and when his wife joined them, poor old Ashley was left all alone. I wanted to go to her and ease her final moments, but I had my girls with me and I did not want them to see this. I wanted to take the girls out of that house and further into the past, but they were already pushing the wormhole through the living room and closer to the back bedroom, so I had no choice.

And then we were through the door and I saw Ashley with my own eyes and recognized her. She was old now, not by modern standards, but she must be in her sixties judging by the wrinkles and laugh lines that adorned her face. Her hair was silver and thin, but it curled and framed her face. Her eyes were the same brilliant brown I remembered, but now they were weary with years and sickness. She was frail, but I could picture her when she was young and strong.

I did not call her Ashley when I knew her; I called her mam, like Jeremiah had done. When I was little I had called her Mama, but I stopped doing that a long time ago. This woman was my mother, which probably meant that Jeremiah was a brother I could not remember. I had not seen Mam in over fifteen hundred years, not since I left home at the age of sixteen to join the cavalry, but I could never forget my own mother. I had no idea her name was Ashley, but now that I did, I began to wonder if Alice knew my mother's name back when she chose the same name for our middle daughter. Surely she would have told me if she was naming our daughter after my mother, right?

Before I had an answer to my question, Kare and Kair interrupted my thoughts by signing, "Grandma," and pointing to my mother.

"Yes, Grandma," I replied, finally understanding that my girls had been right all along and that this woman really was their grandmother.

"Grandma sad you dead," Kair signed.

"Everyone dead now," Kare added.

Could it be true that my mother was still saddened over my death? Did she even remember me? It must have been twenty years since I lost my first life, did it really leave a lasting impact on her? I wanted to go to her and take her hand and ask her all of these questions, but I was still trapped inside my wormhole prison.

"You speak Grandma," Kare signed.

"How?" I asked.

"Talk against web," Kare answered.

"No air," I replied.

"Little air from blood," Kair replied.

My lungs were burning with the water vapor and carbon dioxide that was trapped from all of this time without breathing, so the thought of exhaling was irresistible. And if they said it was okay, then it probably was, because they had been in my future yesterday; if it was dangerous they would not be alive to tell me to do it. But still, I was cautious not to empty my lungs and I let out only the smallest bit of air when I spoke, making my voice come out as a barely audible whisper. And I kept my words as brief and minimal as possible while I pressed my lips against the fabric of space-time.

"Mam? It's Jasper," I said.

"Jasper? Where're ya my sweet boy?" Mam asked me. Her voice was shaky and she sounded like she had fluid in her lungs. I wished that I could save her, maybe even take her to a modern hospital where they could fix whatever it was that was wrong with her, but I could not. I could no more bring her inside my wormhole than I could escape from it.

"Here."

"Will ya tell me now what happened to ya? How'd ya die?" she asked.

This was the last thing she wanted to know to be at peace and it could not possibly cause any harm to tell her, since she would be dead tomorrow. She would not tell and she needed to know, so I told her.

"Evacuating civilians."

"You were always my young little hero. They told me ya're a Major and a hero, but it jus' seemed too surreal. Ya're a little boy the last time I saw ya."

"Sixteen."

"Yes and ya thought that made ya a man. Ya went off to war to make some'in of yaself and look where that gotcha. But how'd you die? What happened baby?"

"Killed by three women."

"How'd three little lasses take down my big strong son?"

"Like me," I said, still not wanting to give it all away. I had spent so many years keeping the secret from humans that I could not even bear to break it for my own mother on her death bed.

"Ghosts?" she asked, jumping to the wrong conclusion. I let her.

"Yes."

"Then what'd ya do?"

"More wars."

"Ghosts have wars too?"

"Yes."

"Then what? What'd ya do after the war?"

"I'm married with six kids." This was my longest sentence so far, but I wanted her to know that I was happy now, despite what had happened to me back then; my wife and children were the reasons for my happiness.

"How can ghosts marry and have children?"

"Like me."

"Ya have six ghost children?"

"Yes."

"Is ya father and all ya brothers and sisters and my Pa there with ya on the other side?"

"No, I didn't go on. I won't contact you again," I said, ending the conversation, because I was running low on air. I still had some air left in my lungs and they were no longer painfully burning now that I had let so much out, but I did not know how much longer I would be trapped here and I did not want to be without air in my lungs for the rest of my imprisonment.

"Jasper! Don't go yet! Come back," she called, but it was no use, because I was already moving backwards in time, trying to find a time when she was not calling to me and did not need me, so that I would not be forced to endure her last moments of suffering, especially because I did not want the twins to see.

And then Kair and Kare's lights went off and they went back to their own time.

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><p>Author's Note: Last week was the 2 year anniversary and when I started writing The Gall Stone of Doom. Happy Gallstoneversary!<p> 


	16. Book2 Masen ch3

Book2-Masen-ch.

Masen's POV:

Dad and Uncle Emmett took us to the park several dozen times and actually made us spend the entire allotted human interaction time actually interacting with humans! And every day before the park we would have endless lectures on human food and customs, so it was way worse than going to school on the island had been. After the playground was exhausted, we went to the mall, repeatedly, which was absolutely awful.

There was nothing worse than being swarmed by a mob of tasty Classics and not being able to drink even one of them! The first time I went to the mall I thought I was going to die of thirst, even though we all had just had our fill of synthetic blood. It felt like I was surrounded by sweet warm pulsating juicy delicious blood calling out for me to drink it. My throat was on fire and it was all I could do to hold my breath long enough to clear the fog from my brain.

Fresh human blood seems so much more appetizing than drinking from a cup. Allison even decided that she needed to develop a better delivery system after that first trip to the mall. Her synthetic Sudanese blood project was still ongoing, but it was going well, so she shifted all of her efforts into this new obsession of hers. She wanted to make something small and discrete, in case a Classic happened across it, but that would heat and pump blood, while emitting just the right amount of fragrance. It was still in the draft stage, but I had every confidence that she could do it.

The desire for human blood that first day was excruciating for everyone, especially for Jackson. He almost exposed us all in the middle of that mall and it was only a vision from Scryan that stopped him. Jackson made the decision to step a little too close to a human, the vision hit, and Scryan zoned out right there in the middle of the crowd. Before Scryan had even come back to us, my dad and I were cornering Jackson. And as I moved, I telepathed what was going on to Uncle Emmett, who stepped in and put Jackson in a headlock.

A group of human security guards kicked us out of the mall for wrestling, but at least no one realized what was really happening and the secret was safe. We could not go back to that mall again, so after that we had to go to another mall. Luckily neither mall was in our own town, because Uncle Jasper has insisted that going to a mall where our neighbors might be was an extremely bad idea, but that just meant that we had to drive really far every time they took us to the mall.

Going to the mall was torture, but at least our parents bought us our own quidditch set, so we could play at home. We split into two teams of five, which meant we only had one beater and two chasers, but still, we had a lot of really fun quidditch matches. And if none of us cheated at the mall or the park, our folks would take us snowboarding as a reward. Snowboarding with the humans was almost as cool as snowboarding back on our island had been. We could not go nearly as fast as normal or do any cool tricks, but we still had fun, especially once we started treating the humans as obstacles to avoid.

My dad and Uncle Emmett did not make us interact with humans every day. Some days we stayed on the compound and had normal classes with Uncle Jasper and Ashley, like we used to do back on our island. They could not go out into the human world with us, because of Ashley's empathy thing, but they were still doing the typical school stuff at home; even when the rest of us were out, she still had lessons at home with her dad. They normally went over the same stuff that the rest of us learned while we were out, except without the actual human interaction.

On the compound we would go over the more sensitive of the human related issues, like urination and bowel excretions. It was really gross, but if we were going to blend in, we would have to know about this stuff and act like it was normal. We might even be forced to pretend we did these things too, so we all had to practice how to fake being human. Some things would be impossible to fake, like the male custom of urinating in front of other males, and in cases like that, we had to memorize lists of excuses to get out of it.

Since most Classics our age had already gone through puberty, we had to learn to hide the fact that all of us had not. The girls all had flat chests, so they had to practice with training bras and Eliza and Lily even started wearing little falsies, to make them look like they had A cups. Violet was the youngest, so it was conceivable that she was a late bloomer, and Allison's mom was flat chested herself, so the adults thought she could get away with being completely flat. Ashley does not even have to worry about that, since she gets to stay home.

Like the girls, us boys had things we needed to hide too, but at least ours were in our pants. And since we were not urinating in public like humans, it was easier to hide it, but still, there would be occasions when we would have to be careful. Apparently boys change in front of each other in P.E.. Most of the time we would be allowed to keep our underwear on, but we will have a major problem when the swimming unit starts.

Dad recommended that we go to school in our bathing suits, saving us the trouble of changing into them at the start of class. But we would still have to change out of them afterwards, and for that we were to take turns going into the bathroom stalls to change. And if that was not possible, Uncle Emmett said to face the lockers and stand really close to them, to minimize the line of sight, because if we get caught, it will lead to rumors.

I was not sure why being so small down there was such big news, but my uncles both had endless memories referencing this type of thing. Humans, it seemed, were fixated on sex, even at such a young age. In fact, from what I have seen from middle school aged Classics so far, sex was all they ever thought about and many of them were even having it. And since none of us were remotely interested in sex or making out, that was another thing we would have to hide.

But the biggest thing that we would have to learn was to fake eat and a list of excuses to not actually eat if someone called us out on it. The absolute worst part about schooling at home was that my dad kept insisting that we actually had to practice _eating_ human _food_. He had tried to force us to eat human food years ago, back when we were still on the island, but we had unanimously vetoed that idea. And by unanimously, I mean even Uncle Jasper and Uncle Emmett agreed with us kids. In fact, Uncle Jasper was our biggest supporter and said that there was no reason to teach us such a horrid skill until it was absolutely necessary.

"The day will come when you have no choice but to eat something in front of a human and you will need to be able to do it convincingly. So, we are going to practice today," Dad announced one summer day, when Scryan could not will it off any longer.

"And it'll take a lot of practice, because human food is super disgusting. The first time I tried to eat it after I was changed, I gagged on it. And then once I managed to swallow it, I puked right away," Uncle Emmett said.

"We'll start with something relatively easy: meat," Uncle Jasper said, coming into the room with a bunch of what he thought were rare steaks from a cow.

My dad and two uncles then proceeded to demonstrate how humans sit down at a table with a knife, a fork, and a plate and eat these slabs of meat. I watched intently as my dad carefully cut his into neat little squares and then popped one into his mouth and swallowed, without grimacing. Then Uncle Jasper and Uncle Emmett did the same thing. I almost gagged just watching it. Violet did gag just watching it.

"Meat like this still has a little bit of the blood in it, so it tastes like really bland caribou with this squishy rubbery texture, but it feels like lead in my stomach," Uncle Jasper explained.

"This is commonly eaten with some form of potato and a vegetable side, like green beans. Potatoes are really unpleasant to choke back up, so always stay away from them. You can use the excuse that they're bad for you to get out of eating them. Vegetables are good for humans, but even they agree they taste horrible, so you can normally get out of eating them too just by saying you don't like them. But all humans like stake, unless they are one of the crazy ones who like vegetables, so you'll have to know how to eat the stake," Uncle Emmett lectured. "Does anyone have any questions?"

"Yeah, how long will it stay in your stomach before you puke?" Lily asked.

"That depends. The first time it'll come up on its own almost immediately, but with practice you can keep it down for short periods of time. But don't push it, so I recommend excusing yourself to use the bathroom within the hour. Humans frequently use the bathroom after eating," he answered.

"I'm anorexic. Can I get my stake made for someone who's anorexic?" Allison asked, already thinking about her human disguise for when we start school. She had told me that anorexia was a fashionable human disease where teens refuse to eat so that they become very skinny.

'Me too,' I projected to everyone, wanting to make it clear that I was with my best friend on this one.

"Scryan and me as well," Eliza added.

"I think we all want to be anorexic," Jackson said for the group.

"Not me: I'm not going to school, so I don't think I should be forced to eat that at all," Ashley replied.

"Children, you can't all be anorexic," Uncle Jasper said. "First of all, the disease is only common in young girls, so Allison, you can go ahead and have it, because you called it first. There are several other eating disorders found in female Classics, so I encourage the rest of you to do a little research and find one for yourself. As for the boys, eating disorders are very rare in male Classics, so you will all have to learn to eat your food."

"But Dad, that's not fair," Jackson complained.

"Yeah," added Scryan.

"Scryan, a Classic your size would be expected to eat twice as much as your average Classic, so fair would mean making you eat twice as much as everyone else. And Jackson, the same goes for you because of how active you are, so don't be whining about fairness," he replied.

"And there is no special way to make food for anorexic Classics. They eat normal food, just smaller quantities and you will already be eating small quantities because you are vampires," Dad said.

There was a lot of grumbling after that, but no one had any more questions, so our dads came around and put nasty stakes in front of each of us. We were then graded on our ability to cut them up without grimacing. And then everyone except for Ashley had to put it in their mouths and try to swallow. I say try, because no one succeeded in swallowing. It barely touched my tongue before I was expelling my stomach contents in the middle of our new classroom and Mom had made an exceptionally good batch of synthetic blood too.

Allison, Jackson, Scryan, Lily, Adriel, and Violet barfed also, but after varying amounts of time. Adriel actually held his hunk of stake in his mouth for thirty full seconds before he puked and that was only because he had made the mistake of trying to swallow it. And believe it or not, but Aiden actually got through the exercise without vomiting, although he spit his piece out after gagging on it for forty-five seconds, which was the record for the day. Ashley even gagged just watching us.

All of us kids were completely grossed out by the exercise and we all hoped that that would be the end of eating human food, but no, my dad was a slave driver and made us keep practicing every day. We kept working with the stake until we could swallow it and not puke immediately, and that took a long time. It took so long that it became just one more thing we worked on for fifteen minutes every school day. And even when human school started, we still had to work on eating human food with my dad and my uncles.

Dad thought that the day might come when we actually had to eat some of it and he wanted us to be familiar enough with it that we could swallow it without gagging, puking, spitting it back up, or even making faces. It was an unrealistic disgusting goal and my stomach hurt for days afterwards, even after I threw the offending item back up. And normally a good portion of my latest blood meal would come up as well, so we would always have to drink again.

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><p>Author's Note: This site doesn't do pictures, but I totally posted another pic for this story on the twilighted version. And I also posted it on a site called pic tease .com<p> 


	17. Book1 Carlisle ch8

Book1-Carlisle-ch.8

Carlisle POV:

A week passed before the shifters realized that they were grossly outnumbered in La Push and never going to get any information out of the remaining wolves. From there they spent another week tracking vampires around North America until they got wind of a major crossroads of vampire occupation in North Eastern Canada. From there it took them only two days to track the various scent trails back to their point of origin on our island and find us. Alice and Scryan knew they were getting close by the spreading and engulfing of the blind spots in their visions. We all knew they were near, by a shift in the wind and a pooling of the tide.

The Quileutes had informed us that the other shifter tribes each had a single telepathic power. Like the wolves every member of the tribe who shifted had the same power and could only use it in their shifted form. But unlike the wolves, the eagles and beavers could not read minds or telepath to each other. Neither creature is a pack hunter, instead preferring to hunt on their own and bring their prey back to share with their mates and offspring. This made them far less efficient at killing vampires, but then protecting humans from vampires was not what shifters evolved to do; it was simply a mantel the Quileutes took up and the others attempted to follow.

Instead of non-verbal communication, the eagles and beavers possessed the power to harness the winds and the seas, respectively. These powers enabled the eagles to fly farther with less exertion and to move unwanted storms out of their way; this skill was particularly useful in bringing rain clouds to the parched deserts of their reservations. The beavers were also able to control the elements, by swelling rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water, so that they could more easily navigate within and between them. Being an aquatic animal, there was not much they could do without water and so they brought it with them. At least they had plenty to work with, being that they come from a miserable, wet place.

That morning the salty sea air blowing across the island from the south seemed warmer and moister than usual. It had a salty tinge to it, but then we live on an island and it had just come in off of the sea. But there was something about this air that was odd. The climate of our island had slowly been changing over the last millennia that we have occupied it; between global warming and the shifting of the continental plates, the weather all around the world had shifted. Was this just the first of many warmer air currents we would begin to receive from the warm southern waters that were now being trapped by South America's Northward movement?

It was only a moment after I thought this when Aiden pointed out the first eagle. We had been out on a leisurely family hike through the woods. Our trees were still scarred and stunted from centuries of growing beyond the tree line, but the tree line had moved centuries ago and now it was hard to picture what our island looked like back when we first arrived; back when large expanses of tundra still dominated the landscape. Allison has preserved samples, in a cold house, of hundreds of species unique to our tundra, mostly for prosperity's sake, but also in case we ever need to reintroduce the increasingly rare species back out into the wild.

"Look Dad, that must be the largest bird I've ever seen! How does it stay up with a body that massive?" Aiden asked.

"Those giant wings," Adriel answered, "and it's riding on the northwestern that's blowing in." As my youngest son spoke, more eagles flew into sight.

"I thought this was going to be a pleasant day, but this warm breeze is really picking up," Esme said and as she spoke, the entire flock of two dozen eagles flew into sight.

We watched for a moment more as the birds began to encircle the island and the winds started blowing in earnest. When the rain started, I ordered everyone back to the house. We could withstand rain, but I had a feeling we were in for a lot more than rain with the eagles around. They typically used their power to keep a steady current of air under their enormous wings so that they could stay airborne, but they had been known to whip up storms when they were angry.

We entered our home at full speed, discarding our wet clothes and reaching for towels, but we could not strip and change right there, because Rosalie was there waiting for us.

"The beavers are here too," Rosalie said. "Emmett and I were taking the girls hunting along the ice shelf when we noticed them popping their heads up through the seal holes. They haven't tried to make land yet, not even on the ice shelf. Alice's preparing to turn on the ring of fire. We were just waiting on you."

"Who is keeping watch in the meantime?" Esme asked. We could not just leave the beavers unattended on the northern side of the island.

"The mutts," Rosalie replied with only a hint of distain in her voice. "It's their fault the beavers are here in the first place.

"It's up!" Alice announced walking in the door. "Bloody shifters, now I can't even predict the weather." She seemed to be in an unusually bad mood.

"The fire wall?" Esme asked for clarification and Alice nodded.

"The kids are all in the school building," Rosalie said indicating that Aiden and Adriel should join them. "The rest of us should keep watch until we figure out what those birds and rodents are up to."

"Agreed," I said handing Adriel his backpack. He could take his dry clothes with him and changed at the school house.

Esme handed Aiden his backpack and we both hugged the boys before sending them on their way.

"We really should build underground tunnels between the buildings for weather like this," Vladimir said coming up the stairs from the basement. Now that Stefan was mated, Vladimir was frequently the odd vampire out and it was not uncommon to find him lurking about the island. I had thought he would have left with Stefan and Uwa right after we finished the rescue, but the lovers had gone off and he had stayed. "I remember old Amun and I used to have tunnels stretching clear from my castle in Romania to his temple in Egypt. Whenever Aro and Caius came after one of us we'd disappear and turn up on the other side of the continent! Oh we made them so mad! Why they even tore up Israel just because they came across one of our tunnels passing through that desolate country."

Vladimir was laughing at his own story, like an elderly human telling the stories of their youth, but at the same time he was following behind us. I did not mind his eccentric ways too much now that I got to know him. He was an asset to me, but more importantly he was my friend.

When we got back outside, it was clear what the beavers and eagles were up to and why neither had tried to land on our island. The beavers were no longer exploring the northern shelf and even if they were, they would never be able to make it past our firewall. The fire sizzled and cackled in the rain, with large tendrils flying off in all directions when hit by large gusts of wind. But it held strong and shifters were no more fireproof than vampires were. The eagles could have flown passed it but they did not; instead they were circling an open bit of ocean to the south. The rain clouds whirled in an obedient circle turning ever darker shades of gray as the eagles beat their wings in unison and used their power to control the air. Down below, the beavers did the same with the sea, flooding more salt water into the basin and encouraging it to be sucked up by the storm clouds ahead.

"They're gonna make a hurricane," Alice said, stating the obvious.

"Someone needs to get the mutts," Rosalie added.

"No need, the mutts already figured out that we were no use on the northern side; we popped back over to this side right before that fire ring turned on," Nahuel said appearing through the trees with three wolves and Nessie by his side.

"What's the plan?" I asked Jacob. This was a shifter issue, so as leader of the hybrids, this responsibility had to be on him.

Jacob nodded to me, before turning to Seth and giving him the floor. Seth was the expectant father and it was his wife and unborn child the shifters wanted dead.

"Jenny's due any day now; we just need to hold out another week," Seth answered.

"This is turning into a hurricane. I'm not sure how strong their capable of producing, but I'm not willing to take any chances. We need to get all of the kids into the basement of the main house; it's the most protected underground structure on the island," Alice said.

"Agreed," Nessie said. "We'll get our kids."

I nodded and Nessie took off with Nahuel to retrieve the hybrid children. They were all adults, except for Leah's youngest, River, who was only two, but she was the size of a ten year old. They all wanted to join in the fight, especially because their unique powers and shapes were unknown to the other shifters and would therefore throw them off guard, but it was too risky and would only enrage our enemy. They wanted Jennifer's head just for being pregnant with a hybrid; if they knew of the others, they would not rest until all were dead. And so Jacob had ordered all of the hybrid children to stay put in the werewolf apartments indefinitely, but now they would need to join us in the basement to hideout from the hurricane.

Esme, Rosalie, Alice, Vladimir, and I went into the school house to update Jasper, Emmett, Bella, and Edward on the situation, but they had already overheard our conversation through the walls and were preparing to move. We all got drenched, even more so than before, making the short trip from the school house back to the main house, because the rain had really started to pick up. Esme, Rosalie, Jasper, and Bella went to work rounding up dry clothes and towels and we were all dry again in a matter of minutes.

Edward lit a fire in the basement fireplace and we gathered around it to warm up while we waited. The children were not near their critical temperature and so were in no danger of hypothermia and developmental damage, but it was nice to be warm. It had a comforting feeling, despite its destructive powers, so we watched the flames dance as Vladimir told us the story of how his coven was destroyed, again, to pass the time.

"When the Volturi first attacked with Jane and Alec," Vladimir said, spitting the names of the twins like they burned his tongue, "Stefan and I weren't there; that's how we survived. He was off on a reconnaissance mission to the north, because there had been a number of werewolf sightings. He left his mate for what was supposed to be a short trip, to see if there were still werewolves in our territory; find their camp, scare them off, and come back. He was the one heading out into the danger. He never imagined that when he returned, our castle would be in ruins and his mate would be gone.

"And so Stefan thought for a time that he was the only survivor from our once prodigious and vibrant family. He stuck to the shadows, but kept his ear to the ground, trying to discern what had happened, because he still did not know about the witch twins or how the smaller force had so spectacularly overwhelmed our own, although it was clear from the start that it involved a pair of miniscule twins. The rumors of those twins spread like wild fire among the nomads. One day the story was the twins, all of knee high, had taken one look at our coven and they had burst into flames! Then there was the story that the twins were not vampires at all, but a dark and sinister creature that ate vampires! The werewolves had threatened us with them, but if they ever existed, they were long gone by this time.

"Eventually Caius set the record straight regarding the twins and word of just how our family and friends were murdered reached both Stefan and I. We were devastated, but separately, because he still had not learned of my survival. You see, while Stefan had been on a mission in the north, my mate and I had been on a mission to the south. We had heard rumors of unusual happenings down in Volterra and Lucinda and I had gone to investigate.

"My Lucinda was the most beautiful creature ever imaginable. She had curly raven locks and perfect red eyes that sparkled in the moonlight. She had a laugh like bells that could light up the whole night sky with her beauty. And her mind! She was one of the most conniving little vampires I have ever seen, even to this day! Although she was not gifted, she had a knack for stealth and a penchant for spy work, so she was asked to see what was going on to the south and I went with her.

"We got word of the disaster even before Stefan. I immediately assumed that he had been lost, same as all of my other brothers. Lucinda was in utter despair, because they were her family too. Mary had even been her human sister before the pair was changed together. We had all spent two thousand years together living in as close to peace as it is possible for our kind to do. And then just like that, in a blink of the eye, they're all gone and there was nothing I could do.

"The one and only thing I could do was to gather up my Lucinda and take her away from that place. She didn't need to continue to look at the ruins or try to sift through the ashes for reminders of what we lost. So I led her away, deep into the mountains, and I hid us in a cave until I was sure the Volturi were out of Romania. Lucinda and I left Romania after that. We were sad and grieving, but we had each other and our dreams of revenge. We could never forget or move on and so our loss was always first and foremost on our minds.

"It was in that state of mind that we agreed to take a risk. We decided to resume our original mission to spy on the Volturi, but this time with the aim of plotting our vengeance. We went south again and kept our ear to the streets, as they say today. We questioned nomads and slunk back into the shadows, remaining unseen while we gathered intelligence. That is how we learned of the witch twins and that is how we learned of a lone survivor, Stefan.

"Lucinda and I found Stefan and the three of us went back to Romania to live. We built a new castle in honor of the memories of our fallen brothers and sisters, but we hid it so deep in the Transylvanian mountains that we thought the Volturi would never find it. This was ages before Demetri, so we were not worried about being tracked. And although we wanted our revenge against them, we had seen just how impossible that would be, and we had no idea that they were planning our demise as well, so we had agree to wait. But then, it wouldn't come to a clash for another two hundred years," Vladimir said as the hybrids arrived.

"We were living there for a hundred years before our existence ever reached Aro's hand. He just happened to touch the hand of a nomad who Stefan had crossed paths with early on, before he had found my mate and me. Aro thought he had wiped us all out, but he was livid to find that he missed one. He took his full Guard north to search us out and destroy us, but they could not find out castle.

"It was built into the natural mountain with only one stone door visible from the outside. When we heard the Volturi were in Romania looking for vampires, we covered that up with a landslide of rocks. We stayed inside that mountain, never daring to venture out for fear of never seeing each other again. But eventually, we got thirsty.

"We decided then to build tunnels through the mountain to the nearest city. It took us years, but we were very thirsty and therefore very motivated. Up until we finally broke through, Stefan, Lucinda, and I would take turns sneaking out at night to get a few drinks for ourselves. But then we were through the rock and we thought the drought was over and that we would be able to drink to our cold hearts' content.

"We drank a lot those first few nights, but it was not long before we realized just what we were doing to the people. There were not that many of them left and we had to stop ourselves before there would not be enough people to run the small farms that were in the area. That and we did not want rumors spreading about strange creatures in the dark Transylvanian Mountains, so we agreed then that we couldn't take too many or too often. We set to work digging more tunnels through the rocks to more small farming villages. After another decade, we had another ten tunnels and could rotate between eleven different human villages.

"But even with eleven villages, there were no more than a hundred people in each, and there were three of us, so we were always thirsty. We were rationing out the humans and we had every birth and death recorded, because we invented the census! We took the oldest ones first; the grandparents. Then we looked for signs of disease, taking the sick before they could succumb to death. And we even scavenged, if we came across a fresh accident in the woods. Anything to slake the burning in our throats.

"We tried to be careful, but in the end, it did not matter, because we were trapped in those mountains. If we tried to leave, there were nomads everywhere with their eyes and ears on the look-out for us. By now Caius had informed the masses that there was a prize on our heads and everyone was anxious to cash in. We thought that if we could just stay put, the mayhem would die down and we could slip out into the world unseen and unmolested. But instead, Aro came across a nomad who thought that there was something suspicious going on in our mountains.

"The Guard came to investigate. They didn't find us at first, but they kept on us and had vampires stationed at every village. They too started counting the villagers to make sure none of them disappeared. They even began asking around about any strange deaths. They learned of a peculiar illness that was going around that culminated in the throat falling apart, but yet there was never that much blood left behind. And so the Volturi found evidence of our feeding habits, but what was worst was when they found one of our scent trails.

"It was my Lucinda. It was an old trail, but it still led the way into our mountain of caverns. The passageways were hidden so well, even from within one passage, that they had trouble finding the joining sectors to the next passage and they did not find our castle. But what they did find was our small pen of humans and they waited there until Lucinda went to fetch one. They tortured her for information, but she wouldn't give Stefan and me up. She wouldn't tell them how to get to the castle or how to look for the secret doors that sealed the various passage ways.

"They burned her, before Stefan and I realized she was missing. I was devastated and utterly useless. I wanted to charge right in there after Lucinda and make Alec pay for what he did to my sweet precious Lucinda. In all of his years, he never knew love. He never knew what he took away from me. He never knew what he did. My only consolation is that he never had what I had. He was an immortal child; the very thing Aro forbade to enter into existence. Sure he had control, so Aro made an exception, but the truth was that he employed two children to do his dirty work and murder thousands of vampires; innocents like my Lucinda and otherwise.

"I would have gone after Aro in a blind rage after that, if it weren't for Stefan. He forced me to see reason and to flee. And that is what we did for thousands of years. We did go back to our castle hidden in the mountain, because the Volturi had never fully located it, but we were never truly safe until the war ended and the tyrants fell," Vladimir finished just as the hybrids finally arrived with their children.

"I need to convince their leaders to have a meeting with me, so I can talk them into calling off this attack. Seth and I are going outside and we're gonna get their attention. We need to talk and they need to listen," Jacob said.

"We can hear them now," Eliza said.

She was clearly implying that Masen could talk to them if he wanted to, but the hybrids did not seem to get the message, so Edward added, "Masen could deliver a message for you, if you'd like. Maybe along the lines of suggesting that your three groups meet on Walrus Island."

Jacob, Seth, and the other shifters all turned their attention to Masen, who was sitting in the corner looking bored and annoyed. Masen had spoken through his telepathy to the hybrids before, but Edward had warned him against doing so now, unless spoken to. It was unnerving to have a voice suddenly pop into your head and it has been years since the hybrids had been here to experience the sensation. And with increased tension going around, Edward thought it best if Masen kept quiet.

"Who, the deaf one Mommy?" River asked Leah. She was a cute girl, but despite her physical appearance, she was only two years old and it showed at times.

"Hush," Leah admonished taking the young girl into her arms. She continued with a whispered explanation meant only for her daughter, but we all heard it anyway. "He can hear fine. And I told you before that he can talk, just in a different way. You'll see soon enough."

"I'm not sure if that will enrage or confuse them, but it's worth a shot," Seth replied to Edward.

"We should go outside and make visual contact. We're already telepathic and my little bro can make it seem like his voice is coming from us," Jacob said, mostly to Seth and Leah, making clear that only the wolves would be going out in the storm.

"This is a shifter fight, after all," Leah said, handing her daughter over to Nahuel.

"No, I should go," Nahuel argued, but there was no real argument and Leah silenced him with a single look.

And so Leah, Seth, and Jacob went up the stairs and out into the storm. Masen, Eliza, and Edward went to the other side of the room with the rest of the hybrids to work on the potential plan from the inside. Eliza and Edward were clearly monitoring thoughts and relaying vital information to Masen, so that he could concentrate on Seth, Jacob, and the two shifter leaders. Nessie and the others were mostly useless at this point, but had such a vested interest in the outcome that they wanted to feel like they were included and at least hear what was going on first hand.

While Masen negotiated a shifter meeting, the rest of us stayed by the fire. Emmett tried to keep morale up by suggesting games we could play indoors and various activities to occupy our time, but the air of war was around us and no amount of distraction could lessen the sound of the howling winds beating against the house.

"Dad, why do they have to have this fight here? The winds are gonna break my window and get my stuff all wet!" Adriel complained.

"Why aren't you playing with your brother?" I asked looking for Aiden. It was then that I noticed that my oldest son was not here among the other children. It took me a second, but I spotted him in the third corner of the room next to Jasper and Ashley. "He should calm you down."

"If I have to endure one more moment of being calm I'm gonna freak," Adriel replied. "I'm sick of his peace."

"Jasper?" I called, heading towards him and wondering why he wasn't keeping the kids calm and relaxed. Adriel followed me.

"Sorry Carlisle, but we're busy trying to calm down the shifters. We're trying to see if we can avoid this fight and force peace talks," Jasper replied.

"Yeah Dad, these creatures are way easier to break than vampires," Aiden added, clearly pleased that his power was finally working on someone. I have hopes that someday his power will be strong enough to encourage peace in everyone, but he was deeply disappointed when he was unable to break through the tide of war with the Volturi.

"They're shifters son. They're sentient, just like you and me; don't ever forget that," I replied, before turning to Jasper. "Do you think it will work?"

"Yes, but only if all three of us concentrate," he replied.

I got the message and led Adriel away from their group and back over to the largest gathering of vampires, where Emmett, Rosalie, and Bella were entertaining most of the children. "Why don't you go play with Violet?"

"Whatever," Adriel huffed, but went to join his friends anyway.

I headed back over to the hybrid group, where Masen was busy telepathing back and forth between Jacob and the leader of the eagles. "How's it going?" I asked Nessie.

"Well, I think. Masen seems to have the leader's agreement to talk face to face. They're just arguing over details now," Nessie replied.

"What sort of details?" I asked.

"They want to meet with just the three leaders. The three chiefs: the chief of the eagles, the chief of the beavers, and Jacob," she answered.

"Then he'll be outnumbered!" I protested. If it were someone under my control, I would never agree to such a meeting. But as a shifter, Jacob was not under my control, so although I was appalled, I resigned myself to stay out of this as much as possible.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I'm against cliff hangers in general, because I like my chapters to wrap up into neat little packages…but this chapter was too long and the next was too short, so I put one in. What do you think? Will Jacob be okay?<p> 


	18. Book2 Masen ch4

Masen's POV:

My stomach still hurt from my dad's latest human food lesson when he announced, "Get ready Masen, today's the day you start speech therapy."

I really did not want to go and not just because it involved interacting with Classics, but because it involved the human teaching me to speak, out loud. I have no use for such frivolous nonsense and even worse, I am no good at it. Eliza always makes fun of me whenever I try. I can only imagine how much worse it will be when it is a human that I am forced to speak to; I am sure it will be infinitely worse, because I will not be able to telepath to a human.

'I don't wanna go,' I insisted.

"Masen, don't even start this today. You are going and that is the end of it," Dad replied. He was considering grounding me for the rest of the summer and not letting me hang out with Allison or Jackson or do anything else remotely fun.

'Fine, let's get this over with,' I gave in, not wanting to be grounded, and trudged off to the garage.

I got to the garage first, climbed in the only cool hover sports car we had, and waited for my dad. Dad was pretty fast, so he arrived just as I was shutting my door and proclaimed, "Sorry Masen, but that car is for recreational activities only. When we interact with the humans, we have to take the clunker." Then he got into our boring eight passenger van.

'But there are only two of us going! Why do we have to take the van when we'll fit in the car?'

"Because those hover cars are only sold by the Sudanese and it will stand out if the Classics see it. We need to blend in and appear poorer than we are, so we need to always be seen in the same car. Now get in or we'll be late."

'Whatever,' I projected and got in.

Dad drove us to a big boring looking white building he called a medical office, parked, and led me to the office where my appointment was. We waited outside for a few minutes until we were called into the back room by a Classic wearing a white coat who introduced himself as Dr. Swartz.

"Good day Dr. Swartz, I'm Dr. Swan. I will be taking a position in emergency at the local hospital come this fall. This is my son Masen," Dad said. We were dropping the Cullen from our last name and adding my mom's maiden name, so that no one would think that we were related to Grandpa Carlisle and Grandma Esme. Our families were just friends.

"It's good to meet you. What brings you and your family to our neck of the woods?" Dr. Swartz asked.

"We just moved to the area from up north in Nunavut. We used to live in British Columbia before the children were born. But when my wife had twins, we decided to get away from city life. I quit my job at the hospital and the four of us have been living off of the land until now. But it seems that I'm just not capable of helping my son with his speech problem, so we decided to move here. We also wanted to enroll the kids in regular school to work on their social skills," Dad replied, giving way too much information as usual.

"Did he ever have interaction outside your immediate family?" Dr. Swartz asked.

"Yes, there were three other families in our commune. We all had children about the same age and wanted to get away from it all, so it worked out rather well. Masen is friends with all the other children."

"Can you tell me about how his problem started? When did he start talking?"

"He didn't say his first word until he was two and a half. Eliza, his twin, was talking up a storm by then and my wife noticed that he had never said a word, so she made it her mission in life to make him say hi."

"Did he ever babble as a baby?"

"No, but he cried."

"Why did it take you and your wife two and a half years to notice that your son was mute?"

"Because he never needed words. He learned sign language as a baby from one of the other parents. We had a little daycare going where we each took turns watching the kids and one day Masen came home signing."

"How old was he when he started signing?"

"About eleven months. I remember we were gearing up for their first birthday."

"Did you understand him right away, or did you and your wife have to learn sign language?"

"I already spoke sign language, but my wife had to learn it."

"I must say this is quite an unusual story; there're just so few people with hearing impairments these days that almost no one speaks sign language anymore. My parents thought I was crazy when I decided to learn it. I'm glad I did, because I'm the only speech therapist in the providence that does speak it, so I get all of the deaf children once their hearing is repaired. But I've never heard of children with perfect hearing learning it."

"Jasper, one of the other parents, was hearing impaired when he was little. He had the surgery, like everyone else, but he has always remembered his first language. He likes to practice it so that he doesn't forget it."

"Masen, have you ever wanted to speak out loud?" Dr. Swartz asked me.

"No," I signed. I have been learning sign language ever since the adults decided we would be moving into human territory, so that I would be able to communicate with them.

"And why not? Don't you think it'd be easier to speak out loud?"

"No, much harder," I signed.

"It'll get easier with practice."

"I doubt it," I signed.

"And why's that?"

"Hard," I signed, shrugging.

"Well why don't we get started? Dr. Swan, can you wait out in the lobby?"

"Stay father," I signed, not wanting to be left alone with a human.

"He can stay if you'd like," Dr. Swartz replied.

"Yes," I signed.

"Can you start by speaking to me, so I can see where we are?"

I tried to say that we are at the beginning, but it came out more of a grunt with a long warble. It was absolutely horrible and I was sure no one understood me, so I sat there waiting for the laughter to start.

'It's worst that I thought. I've never seen a kid this old this bad before. I'm not sure if I can fix this…it'll take a lot of work…a lot of hours. At least the pay is good and I can really use the money right now,' Dr. Swartz thought before thinking about all of his money problems, but he did not laugh.

'He's gotten worse; it's like when he was a baby all over again. We should never have caved and stopped working on speech with him. But he fights me so and makes it so difficult that I let it slip from my mind. I am a horrible father,' my dad was thinking, but he did not laugh either and was closer to crying.

"When was the last time he tried to speak? Dr. Swartz asked Dad.

"When he was five or six. We used to work with him every day from the time we realized he couldn't talk to when he was five. But they started Kindergarten and we were busy with school work and I guess speech just fell by the wayside," Dad answered.

"How was his speech when you were working with him regularly?"

"It was bad, but understandable. He had a stutter and spoke too softly, which made it worse."

"A major part of his problem seems to be lack of use. The muscles in the face and mouth responsible for speech are probably atrophied. We need to start exercising those muscles again, but that's not the only issue. I think that there's a mental health issue here, preventing your son from wanting to speak. I'd like to recommend that he see a psychiatrist to deal with his other problems, but we don't have any in the region that speak sign language."

"I can translate," Dad volunteered.

"Well we'll have to make do, but it'd be preferable if someone outside the family did the translating, because Masen may feel uncomfortable talking about you in front of you."

'Allison could translate for me,' I projected to Dad, not wanting him to go with me. Plus Allison and I could probably use the time to goof off together if she was translating for me.

'She won't want to leave her experiments,' Dad thought.

"Maybe I can get someone else to translate; everyone in our commune has learned, since Masen refuses to speak anything else. Just give me the referral and I will work on it later," Dad replied.

"Okay, very well. Masen, you need to start with basic tongue and mouth exercises. Since you didn't babble as a baby, you'll have to start now. One of the easiest sounds to make is the D sound, duh. I want you to try to say duh for me."

'You've gotta be kidding me,' I projected to Dad.

'Just do what he says; he is the expert,' he thought back to me.

"Uh," I said out loud.

"Well at least you can say the short U sound, so I can cross that off my list," Dr. Swartz said crossing off one of the letters on his clipboard. "Now to make the D sound, the first thing we need to do is move the tip of the tongue up. Can you do that for me?"

'Can I eat him instead?'

'No.'

'Fine,' I project to Dad, lifting up my tongue while letting my mouth hang open so that Dr. Swartz could see.

"Very good, I see you can do it, but I still think the muscles have atrophied. You need to lift your tongue up and down and side to side every day to regain the strength in your tongue. I want you to do ten reps of each every two hours while you're awake. One rep is lifting your tongue up, then down, then back to resting. Or, it's to the left, to the right, then back to resting. Got it?" he asked.

I nodded.

"I want you to try to answer with words, even if we can't understand you yet. You can nod or sign at the same time, but always attempt the words as well."

"Uh," I said, nodding again.

"Good. Now the next thing you need to know to make the D sound's that you've gotta place that tongue tip behind the front teeth. Can you try that for me?"

I tried to do exactly what he said, but all that came out was, "Nnnnnn…Nnnnn…Nnnnn."

"Well that's the N sound, but for the D you have to click your tongue on the alveolar ridge, which's what the skin in back of your front teeth's called. Can you try it again, but with a clicking motion?"

"Can't try easier sound me?" I signed, while saying, "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhg."

"No, we're starting with D. Remember, you need to click the tongue," he replied.

'Stop being so difficult Masen,' my dad thought at me.

'I'm not being difficult; he's giving me difficult sounds! Why can't we start with vowels?'

'Because Mr. Swartz is the professional, not you.'

'Of course not me. Imagine me trying to teach Classics to talk?' I asked laughing.

"See, you can made sounds that the rest of us can recognize. But what's so funny Masen?" Dr. Swartz asked.

"This where give up father," I signed and pointed to my Dad.

"Well I can assure you that I'm not so easily deterred. And remember to speak out loud when you sign."

"Yes," I signed and said, "Uh."

"Now, please click your tongue behind your front teeth for me."

"Ta," I said, clicking my tongue.

"Good, you made the T sound, which is very close to the D sound. Now all you need to add is the vocalization. Add some sound and force behind that tongue clicking, like this: Duh."

"Ta," I tried again.

"Keep trying until you get it," he insisted.

I tried several dozen more times before I finally got it and said, "Duh."

"Excellent! You're learning already. Now I want you to repeat it one hundred times. How about you do ten reps of ten?"

"Too many," I signed and said, "T-uhhh," trying to incorporate what I had learned.

"Very good! I think you just might have the T sound down, which is really good, because we'll be doing that one next."

'Great,' I projected to Dad, wishing Mom was here. At least Mom would have spent so much time hugging me that there would only be time to say the D sound once or twice.

"Now back to work: ten reps of ten Ds please," Dr. Swartz continued.

I tried to repeat the miraculous D sound, but it was difficult and I got out about a dozen Ts and several Ns for every one D. By the time I had gotten to ten, I was getting very frustrated with this exercise.

"Well I'll stop you there and we can pick back up next session. Normally I'd recommend two hour long sessions once or twice a week, but is there any way you could bring this one in every day?" Dr. Swartz asked Dad.

"I'll have to discuss it with his mother first," Dad said thinking, 'What do you think Masen? It would mean having to leave your human interaction lessons early.'

Human interaction lessons were pretty boring and I would do almost anything to get out of them, but speech therapy was even worse and it was one of the few things that I would not trade human interaction lessons for. 'No, I'd rather go to the lessons,' I replied.

"Certainly Dr. Swan. You can make your next appointment with my receptionist out front or you can call in. And as for you Masen, I still want you to do the other nine reps today," Dr. Swartz said and I made a face. "It'll get easier with practice, trust me. And don't forget to do your tongue exercises too."

"Will I," I signed and said, "Uh."

And then my first session of speech torture was over. Dad decided that interacting with Dr. Swartz counted as human interaction time, so that I did not need to be present for the entire human interaction class every day. Then he called Dr. Swartz's receptionist and schedule an appointment for me for every weekday afternoon at three, officially turning this into the worst summer ever.

"You should just be grateful he didn't try to stick his hand in your mouth to make sure that you have all the right parts," Dad said when he got off the phone. Then he started thinking about his initial phone conversation with my doctor in which he had to assure him that he was a doctor and was therefore one hundred percent certain that there was nothing wrong with my anatomy. 'It was only when I claimed you had a phobia of other people sticking their hands in your mouth that he gave up on the idea of examining you himself.'

'Why would I have such a ridiculous phobia? He's welcome to drain his precious blood into my mouth if he likes,' I replied.

'I said it was because of all of the times I stuck my hands in your mouth as a child, trying to determine why you couldn't speak.'

'Well I'm gonna tell him that I have no such phobia tomorrow. I bet he tastes as sweet as he smells.'

"Don't joke like that Masen," he scolded me, ending the conversation.

I went off to play with Allison after that, but true to his word, Dad made me go back to Dr. Swartz' the next afternoon and every afternoon thereafter. I learned to say the D, T, and N sounds and all of the other sounds. I even learned how to put each sound into a syllable by the end of the summer, although I was far from being able to talk or even make words. Dr. Swartz planned on teaching me words and sentences during the course of the school year.

I also started going to therapy every Saturday and Uncle Emmett agreed to take me, so that I could talk about Dad and how annoying he was behind his back. My therapist's name was Dr. Lefevre and he let me spend the entire sessions telling him about how lame my parents were and how mean my sister is. He even had my parents come in for a session in which he blamed them for all of my speech problems.

"The two of you and your daughter have made Masen here feel insignificant and unworthy of your attention; it's no wonder he doesn't speak when no one's listening," Dr. Lefevre said to my parents.

Then he went on to tell my parents that they needed to be more supportive of me and pay me more attention. And he said Eliza was the biggest problem, because she made fun of me whenever I was practicing my babbling. She even gave me the nickname little babbling baby Masen and Dr. Lefevre did not like that at all. He went as far as to say that being in the same house as Eliza was psychologically damaging for me and recommended that my parents separate and each take a child so that I would not have to be subjected to her.

I did not want my parents to separate, but I was all for getting rid of Eliza. And I did see one way to work the situation to my advantage, so I suggested that I be allowed to spend all of my free time at Allison's house. I could practice my babbling at her house without anyone making fun of me and I could spend all of my time with my two best friends. Plus, this also meant that Eliza was not allowed over to Allison's house while I was there and Scryan was her best friend, so this plan would piss her off. I was all for pissing Eliza off.

My parents agreed, but with one modification, which was that I only spend my nights at Allison's house. During the evenings they wanted Allison to come over to my house, so that Eliza could go over to Scryan's house and that they could see me. And if for some reason the Whitlocks were away, one of us would have to go to the Hale or Cullen homes, so that I did not have to be subjected to my sister. So at least one good thing came from therapy.


	19. Book3 Jasper ch6

Jasper's POV:

When Kair and Kare's came back again, I took them further back in time, to before my mother got sick. We watched her sit in her living room and knit a blanket while watching a sleeping toddler. He was Jeremiah's youngest boy and when he woke up from his nap, Mam fed him cookies. Then she played with him and sang him songs; Kair, Kare, and I enjoyed watching them interact and I even translated the songs to sign language, since I could not sing along.

Like clockwork, the girls vanished and reappeared and this time we watched as my mother sat down to supper with Jeremiah's family. His wife had cooked and the table was filled with children. The oldest child was a boy who looked to be around twelve years old and the youngest was the little boy from before, and there were three children in the middle. They truly seemed to be a happy family.

The next time Kair and Kare came we went back in time again and watched Jeremiah and his oldest two kids work on the ranch. His wife was in her garden with the younger two and Mam was on the porch rocking the baby. Then we went further back and the baby was a tiny little newborn, fresh out of the womb. Our journey back in time was not terribly interesting, but every once and awhile we would happen across a family reunion or one of my other siblings would drop by for a visit. I did not recognize any of the people who came to the family reunions, so I mostly concentrated on my sibling's visits.

My sisters Lidia and Mariam came when Jeremiah's fifth child was born. I remembered Lidia, because she was only one year older than me. Mariam was not that much younger than me, but I just could not remember her, because those years of my life had faded. Luckily for me, Lidia and Mariam loved to gossip about the olden days and Jeremiah's two daughters, Annabelle and Ruth, loved to sit at their aunts' feet and ask questions, so they filled me in on what I was missing.

"Just how many children were there? There seemed to be quite a few of ya in that last story…" Annabelle, the older girl, asked after Lidia had finished telling a story about how we had all snuck out to the pasture and tried to ride the bulls. Joseph, my older brother and the only one I could remember, had fallen off and gotten hurt, because he just kept trying to copy me. For some reason he thought that just because he was older that he should be able to do everything I could.

"Well Joseph was the oldest and he went off to war when he was twenty. The war was just startin' then and my pa went with him and neither of them ever came back," Lidia began. I knew Joseph and Pa had left, but I did not know what had happened to them, because I had never returned either. Maybe word of them had gotten to me on the battlefield, but I do not even remember what I did and did not know. "I was the second child and since I was the oldest girl, I was always watchin' out for the others and what not."

Mariam, my younger but well-aged sister, gasped and exclaimed, "When did ya ever watch out for me? I was the one that almost got trampled by that bull when Joseph fell off and broke his arm!"

"I did stop ya from tryin' to get on the next time and all the many times after that when Jasper went out bull riding again," Lidia replied.

"Which one's Jasper again?" Ruth, Jeremiah's youngest daughter, asked. She was probably only five or six at the time.

"Jasper was right between me and Lidia. He had a way with the animals and could ride a horse by the time he was four. The cows would fight over which one got to get milked by him," Mariam answered.

"What happened to him?" Annabelle asked.

"He ran away when he was sixteen so he could fight in that blasted awful war," Lidia said. "He left just after Pa and Joseph did and he never came back, but a Coronel did come to our house after the war ended. We lost ya know. He told us about what happened to Joseph, Pa, and Jasper. Pa, being older, died first in his very first battle. Joseph lasted a little longer, but he too fell in battle within the first year. Jasper, the Coronel said, had done very well for himself in that war, not that he lived through it. He got himself a fancy title and everything. What was his title again Mariam?"

"General Jasper Whitlock, I think," Mariam answered.

"No that wasn't it, I think he was a lieutenant," Lidia replied. "Well whatever it was, it was important because this Coronel was coming to tell us he had died. He wouldn't've come and told us 'bout Pa and Joseph if he didn't already hafta come by to tell us 'bout Jasper, 'cause so many other men had died in that war and they just couldn't possibly visit all the houses of the next of kin. And there were so few men left doing their jobs and telling the families…"

"And some of 'em soldiers they never found the bodies for and they didn't know what happened to 'em. And with our side losing and all, the system completely broke down and most of the families were just left wonderin' what had happened to their men. I think our three were only on his list because they had all died fairly early on in the war, before it all went to pot," Mariam added.

"So you were the fourth child Auntie Mariam?" Annabelle asked, changing the subject.

"No, I was the seventh, because there was one still birth and Johnnie and Suzanne died before I was born," Mariam answered.

"The measles came through when Johnnie and Suzy were just babies. Jasper wasn't much older, but he was strong enough to survive. The still birth happened after that and I think it was 'cause of the measles too. I remember Mam was gonna name her Georgia. After losing baby Suzy, I had been looking forward to having a little sister so much," Lidia said.

"And then you finally got one and look how ya treat me!" Mariam countered.

"I think I treated ya fairly well, if I do say so myself. You're alive, ain't'cha?" Lidia asked.

"So after Auntie Mariam, it was Pa?" Annabelle piped up, distracting her aunts from their bickering.

"No, then it was two miscarriages and then Elijah," Mariam answered.

"What happened to Elijah?" Ruth asked shyly. I had begun to notice that Ruth was the shy one of Jeremiah's girls.

"Elijah was the man of the house once Jasper left, even though he was only ten. He died six years later, at the age of sixteen, which made him the youngest son to die, except for Johnnie, but Johnnie didn't make it passed the age of three," Mariam answered.

"How'd he die?" Annabelle asked.

"Well when the war was ending, the confederacy was dissolved along with all of the local law enforcement. The Union didn't send us no help and the city broke down into one lawless mess. People were setting fires, destroying our cattle and crops, pillaging our houses and stores, and kidnapping and raping our women. Someone might kill ya just for the shirt off ya back it was that bad," Lidia answered, reminding me of all of the reasons why I had gone to war in the first place, because it had nothing to do with slaves.

Sure my family had used slave labor; every family with a ranch or a farm did, but I had no issues with setting them free or giving them rights. What I took issue with was the North telling us folk down here how we could and could not live our lives. They were taking away the freedom of the states to formulate our own laws and transforming the country from a republic to an empire. That was something I was willing to take up arms against. And more importantly, I knew that if we lost our people would suffer from the destruction that the Union army would lay behind them. But really, I was just a boy whose older brother and father were going off to war and I did not want to get left behind.

"That's awful," cried Annabelle, burying her face in her hands.

"But that's how it was then child. You ought to know this stuff so that ya can make a proper decision about goin' to war next time 'round," Mariam said gruffly.

"How'd he die?" Ruth asked, saving her older sister from the scrutiny of their aunts.

"Elijah tried to protect us all. It was just our Mam and us three girls and little Jeremiah. Your father was only seven years old at the time. He was so young when the war started and the men left that he don't remember none of 'em," Mariam answered.

"A gang of lawless men came by to look at Mam, because they knew she was a widow and all. They were ruthless, nasty, and mean, so Mam sent them on their way. But they came back and set fire to the house in the middle of the night. Mam and Elijah got all of us but Margery out and Mam took us into the barn to hide behind the cows for the night, while she went off trying to find help to put out the fire. Elijah got so mad that Margery was dead that he decided he had to do some'in 'bout those men and he went after 'em with his riffle. He got one of 'em too, before they turned on him and strung him up," Lidia finished.

"So we lost our third brother, a sister, and the house all in one blow. Mam had to sell all our cattle to pay for this one to be built," Mariam added.

And then I suddenly realized that this house was in the same spot as the one I had grown up in. The house was new, because of the fire, explaining why I did not recognize it, but I had lived here for the first sixteen years of my life. Now that I knew the property was the same, I began to recognize little things that seemed familiar, like the curved slope of the hill in back of the chicken coop. I could almost remember playing on that hill with my brothers. And the well was the same, right down to the cracked brick on the bottom left corner, from when Joseph's bull had rammed it with his horns, before throwing Joseph off and breaking his arm.

"And then was it Pa?" Annabelle asked.

"Pa was the man of the house after that, yes, but there were three children in between him and Elijah. There was a miscarriage, a still birth, and of course little Margery. Margery was between Elijah and your pa until that fire took her from us. She was nine," Mariam explained.

"Pa's been the man of this house since he was seven, right?" Annabelle asked.

"He sure has. He even helped build it," Lidia replied. "Out of all 'em children, only three, Mariam, your pa, and me lived long enough to have children of our own."

"Why didn't you bring our cousins today?" Ruth asked.

"Well we didn't wanna have all of 'em runnin' 'round the house when your mam's in the room trying to rest after havin' your new brother. We just wanted to pop in and see the baby," Mariam answered.

"And then you two little ones roped us into babysitting ya and telling ya stories while your dad and older brother are out in the field working," Lidia added.

"Oh please tell us another story Auntie Lidia. A happy one this time," Annabelle requested.

"Did I ever tell you about how we all usesta go out fishin' down by the creek?" Lidia asked.

"No," Ruth and Annabelle replied simultaneously.

"Well we all usesta go fishin' 'bout once a week. We'd take our nets and our rods and our buckets and see what we could catch for supper. But my late brother Jasper never wanted to be bothered with carryin' all that stuff, so he'd just go down to the water with nothin' but his trousers on. He'd dive into the water and swim 'round and laugh at the rest of us for workin' hard to catch the fish," Mariam began.

"Then once we'd all caught what we were gonna catch or given up for the day, scrawny little Jasper would reach into the water and pull up a fish with his bare hands. He'd toss it at us and go for another, not carin' that they'd wiggle away from us; I don't think he ever understood that those fish were only complacent for him. Within about five minutes he'd catch more fish than the rest of us, combined, had caught all day. Then we'd have to fill our empty buckets with his fish and carry 'em back home, because he was too lazy to even bring his own bucket," Lidia finished.

"He always said it was 'cause he couldn't possibly fit all 'em fish in one bucket," Mariam added. I did not remember ever saying that or going fishing for that matter, but being that I was still trapped in this wormhole, I was not about to argue with her.

"Didn't Grandma yell at him and tell him to bring his own bucket?" Annabelle asked.

"Of course not after seeing how many fish he had caught! She'd just order Joseph and Pa to clean 'em so that we could cook 'em," Mariam answered.

"Was he the favorite then? Did he get out of doin' all his chores?" Ruth asked with envy.

"Oh no, he still did plenty chores, 'cause while we're all helpin' with cleanin' and cookin' the fish, he'd be out in the barn milkin' the cows. He'd always be takin' care of those animals, 'cause it wasn't just the fish that liked him. I swear his horse could read his mind the way it listened to him," Lidia said.

"Well I hate to break up the chitchat ladies, but our mam needs help with the baby," Jeremiah said walking into the room. And just like that, the gossip session was over for the day and Kare and Kair would have to get going soon anyway.


	20. Book2 Masen ch5

Masen's POV:

Once we mastered the mall, Uncle Emmett decided that we needed to take it to the next level of human interaction and actually get to know Classic children our age. He thought that a group home would be the perfect place to do so. Group homes were places where a large number of Classic children lived; children who either did not have parents or were not allowed to live with their parents for various reasons. Specifically, it was where children in need of adoption lived, which was why Uncle Emmett wanted to go there.

Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rosalie were in para again and although it would still be about twenty years until they would need hosts, they were already thinking about it and planning ahead. They could always go out at the last moment and get a host infected with New Ebola, like most vampires did, but they did not want to do that. They wanted to adopt humans now, raise them as their own, and then implant them, similarly to what they had done the first time they had hosts.

The big difference between the first time and this time though, was that last time they had adopted dying babies and implanted right away. This time they were considering taking in children and waiting twenty years to implant, but if they just chose any random human children and implanted in twenty years, then those humans will die during the emergence, in only one hundred twenty years. One hundred and twenty years was a long lifespan for a human back in the day, but that was no longer the case; today it would amount to a relatively short lifespan.

Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rosalie did not want to cut a human's life short, so they were hoping to find one of the many Classics with a genetic health condition. Classics have been genetically modifying genetic diseases out of their germ lines ever since Aunt Alice and Allison's host Zakaira introduced the technique. The traditional diseases were gone, but new ones had emerged in their place. It seemed that new diseases were popping up in newborn Classics at an accelerating rate.

Genetic testing was commonly done on newborns, so parents knew within the first year of life the life expectancy of the child. Parents did not want to spend the energy raising and the money educating defective children that would not make it passed the age of fifty, so they would commonly relinquish custody to the state. The state would then place the children in group homes and pay their medical bills for the duration of their short lives.

Uncle Emmett was hoping that there might be a few such genetically defectives at our local group home and volunteering there would be the perfect excuse to meet them. And if someday they become hosts, they would be guaranteed a hundred years of life from the time they were implanted, which would increase their life expectancy, making my uncle the hero, not the murderer. His conscious would be clean and he and his wife would get their pair of babies.

Forcing us kids to volunteer at group homes and interact with Classics our age there would thus be killing two birds with one stone. I went along with it mostly because Uncle Emmett had been really cool about helping me play pranks on my human therapist. Dad got wind of it and put a stop to it by taking me himself, which meant it was harder to talk about him, but Uncle Emmett and I got in a really awesome prank before Dad found out what we were up to. Dad was more mad at Uncle Emmett, because he was supposed to be the grown up and well, it was his idea. You see, the easiest way to get my uncle to play a prank is to wait for one to pop into his head, read his mind, and then convince him that it will be alright if he does not play the strict parental figure role for once and just goes with it.

And so we were once again loaded into the two slow vans and driven to yet another human interaction scenario, but not before Aunt Alice gave my dad and Uncle Emmett a warning.

"Eliza isn't going to be able to handle their thoughts today, because some of those children have seen too much," Aunt Alice said thinking, 'Many of them were taken away from their parents because they were abused.' "And Jackson and Scryan shouldn't be surrounded by Classics when they see visions of those children for the first time." 'Some of them have unpleasant pasts and the others have unpleasant futures.'

'See, I told you the three of us just end up sitting in the car the whole time,' Scryan thought to Eliza, but she cannot project her shield onto others, so I overheard.

'They get to sit in the car while we have to go inside? That's so unfair,' I projected to my dad. Suddenly helping my uncle out with this was sounding more like a chore. And if Jackson, Scryan, and Eliza were left in a van alone together, you can bet that they will be having fun. The van might not even survive.

'I don't want to hear it Masen. Besides, you won't have to speak to them and your mom is picking you up early for your speech therapy appointment. You will only be there half of the time,' my dad thought giving me a pointed look.

'Whatever,' I replied. I really did want to go, but I could not let my dad know that.

The drive out to the group home was uneventful. When we arrived, my dad said, "Jackson, Eliza, and Scryan, I want you three to stay put inside this van at all times. I do not want to hear that you have left it for any reason. As for Allison and Masen, some of the children you will be meeting today attend the school you will be starting in the fall. I suggest you seek them out and attempt to make friends, so that you will blend in in the fall."

"Yeah, sure," Allison replied.

Dad gave Eliza one last look and mentally told her not to get into any trouble while he was gone and warned her that he would be within mind-reading range at all times. He could not read her mind, but she could not shield Jackson and Scryan, so he would know what was going on through them. Then we got out of the car and met up with Uncle Emmett's van, which was just pulling in. The eight of us walked into a squat ugly old building that smelled of mold and decay. The wall paper was peeling off the walls and there were gouges in the outdated vinyl tiles. We stopped at a weird half-wall and signed our names in a log book, and then sat down to wait.

A fat middle aged woman came out and introduced herself as Mrs. Smith.

"Hello Mrs. Smith, I'm Dr. Swan and this is my brother Mr. Hale. These are our children, Masen, Allison, Lily, Violet, Aiden, and Adriel," Dad said, pointing to each of us in turn.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. May I ask why you've decided to volunteer your time here? It'll help me in divvying up tasks for each of you to help with," she replied.

"We are quite well off financially and the children are very spoiled. We would like them to get to know some less fortunate children so that they will be more appreciative of what they have," Dad answered.

"In that case I'll pair each child with an appropriate mentee. As for you two, we could use some help with the cleaning," she replied.

"Let's get started," Uncle Emmett said enthusiastically.

Mrs. Smith was one of the caretakers at the facility and she showed us around once the introductions were over. There were two sides to the compound, one for girls and the other for boys, and they were completely separate from each other. The girls stayed on the girl's side and vice versa, so Allison, Lily, and Violet got paired up with their mentees first. Lily had cheated and found out from Scryan before-hand which mentee to pick, so she went straight for a Classic girl named Megan that she would have fun playing with. Allison also had help and chose a nerdy girl named Brooke, while Violet picked a shy one named Coralie.

Then we went over to the boy's side so that Aiden, Adriel, and I could get to meet our mentees. Mrs. Smith noticed how hyper Adriel is, so she decided to do opposites and pair him with Kyle, who was kind of depressing. Aiden had even worse luck; he got paired with Brent, not because they have anything in common, but because Mrs. Smith really thought Brent needed a mentor.

"What types of activities do you like to do?" Mrs. Smith asked me when it was my turn. I was last, so Adriel and Aiden were already talking with their mentees.

"He doesn't talk," my dad supplied for me. "But, he likes video games."

Mrs. Smith nodded and decided to put me with Robby, thinking that we might have a lot in common. Dad and Uncle Emmett were then led off to the bathrooms by Mrs. Smith, while a man named Mr. Williamson came over to tell us what mentors do.

"Basically, each mentee mentor pair just has to talk to each other. The goal is for each pair to become friends. Do you all understand?" Mr. Williamson asked.

The other children all said yes and I nodded. We were then sent out to the lawn to chat. It was another overcast day and the clouds were plastered thick in the sky, so there was no danger in any sunlight peeking through and ruining our day. My mentee, Robby, was a scrawny boy who was an inch taller than me, although he was only twelve years old and I was eleven hundred years old. I let him lead me over to a tree and then followed him when he climbed up it and sat on a low-lying branch.

"My name's Robby, what's yours?" he asked me.

I already knew what his name was, because I had heard both Mrs. Smith's and Mr. Williamson call him that, but that did not seem to be the best response to his introduction. Plus I remembered that humans were very forgetful, so I decided to repeat my name for him. The only problem was that I could not speak and he could not sign, so I activated my cell phone and turned on my translation program.

"My name M-A-S-E-N," I signed in front of the sensor and the phone said, "My name is Masen."

Mom and Dad did not want to get me this program at first. They even swore that I was not going to get it, despite what Scryan saw, because they viewed it as a crutch and thought that it would allow me to avoid speaking out loud. Part of the reason they were pushing me to interact with humans was that it would force me to learn to speak, so they did not want me to have a speech program on my phone. But after Uncle Emmett and I convinced my therapist that he was crazy and Dad started taking me instead, my parents had to get me the translation program; my therapist said so, because Dad was not allowed to be in the room with me and the human needed a way to communicate with me. He did not speak sign language, so he insisted that they get me the program, despite my parents' reservation. He really wanted Dad to not come at all and send me with another translator or even send Uncle Emmett back, because he did not know that it was us messing with him, but we all compromised and I got the translator program and Dad watched me from just outside the room on the other side of the door.

"Um, what program are ya using?" Robby asked, but he wanted to know why I was making the funny gestures with my hands and having my cell talk for me.

"Sign language translator. Can't speak me," I signed and it translated, "It's a sign language translator. I can't speak."

"Why not?" he asked, but he thought, 'Are you a defective too? Why didn't your parents give you away like mine did me? I wish I had a dad like yours.'

"I don't want to," my translator told him.

"Why not?"

"It's hard for me and my sister makes fun of me because I sound weird when I try. Dad's making me go to this really awful thing called speech therapy where this guy tries to teach me. Mom's picking me up early today to take me, because I have to go every weekday."

"That sucks," he said, but he was thinking about how lucky I was that my problem was fixable and that my parents had not given up on me.

I nodded my head.

"So have you learned to say anything in speech therapy?"

"I," I said out loud, picking something easy.

"That's it? No sentences yet?"

I shook my head.

"Do you want to learn?"

I shook my head again and signed, "Hard."

"Oh."

"How long have you been here?" my cell translated.

"I've been in this home for a little over a year, but I've been in group homes as long as I can remember."

"Have you ever met your parents?"

"No," he answered looking down at his feet dangling in the air below the branch. He was ashamed and embarrassed.

"Parents are lame. Besides, my therapist said that I would be better off if mine got a divorce."

"Your parents aren't divorced?" he asked and I shook my head. "Not even a little?" Marriage was rare, but staying married was unheard of.

"No, neither one is divorced. They were virgins on wedding night, like fairytales."

"No way!"

I nodded.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" he asked, clearly forgetting I mentioned my sister.

"Two sisters."

"Tell me about them?"

"Nessie is the oldest. My parents got pregnant on their honeymoon, just like in a fairy tale. She is pretty cool, but she doesn't live with us. She is already grown with children of her own. My parents didn't plan on having any more children, but then they had an accident and that's how they got me and Eliza. We're twins."

"Are you and your twin close?" he asked, clearly not remembering what I had told him earlier.

"No, we hate each other. She's so mean to me that my therapist said that it's her fault that I don't talk. He told my parents to separate us, so I get to spend most of my time at my girlfriend's house now. And whenever I go home, they send Eliza to her boyfriend's house."

Uncle Emmett had covered boyfriends and girlfriends in class and he said it would save us all a lot of trouble if we paired off and pretended to be dating amongst ourselves. He then had us each chose an unrelated member of the opposite sex to pretend date. I chose my best friend Allison and she chose me and somehow everyone else paired off without any fighting. Jackson and Lily chose each other. Eliza and Scryan chose each other. Ashley and Aiden chose each other. And Adriel and Violet chose each other.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Robby asked.

"Right now in the car. We were all homeschooled in Nunavut, which is where we're from, and we still have to go to homeschool together every weekday until school starts unless we come here."

"How many kids are there?" he asked wondering how many families made up our group and just what kind of group we had.

"Ten kids from four families. My parents joined a nature commune and decided to live off the land when Eliza and I were born. Before that my dad was a doctor and Mom was a splicer, so they decided to move down here and go back to work." Splicer was the term for a genetic engineer that does germ-line modifications in humans, which was what Mom would be doing in the fall.

"There are a maximum of thirty-six boys here, but there are only thirty-five here now."

"What do you boys do all day?"

"During the school year, we go to school, but because it's summer, we get to play. There are computers and books in the library and games in the game room. There are no toys here, but in the home I was in before they had toys. We can go outside and play sports or climb trees, but we have to stay within the boundary. We can pretty much do whatever we want as long as we show up at meal time."

"Do you have a schedule? My parents keep us on stupid schedule even during summer and even when I'm at my girlfriend's house."

"Yeah. We get up at seven thirty every morning and make our beds and get dressed. Breakfast is at eight sharp and then we brush our teeth. Lunch's at noon and dinner's at six. After dinner we have chores before we can watch TV. After that it's shower time and then we can read until bedtime, but light's out is at 9:30," he said, leaving out that he too has a doctor's appointment this afternoon.

Robby was thinking about his genetic disease and how he had to go have treatments twice a week. The treatments added back the correct protein and filtered out the bad proteins, but they would not cure him, even though they would extend his life. Without the treatments, he would be dead by now. But with the treatments, he could expect to live between thirty and fifty years, which was perfect for Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Emmett.

"My dad said that I didn't have to be afraid to talk to you, because you are sick too. Is that true?" the translator asked. It was a lie that my dad told me, because I only knew that I was being paired with a defective because of his thoughts and what I had read in Mrs. Smith's mind. She decided to pair me with Robby the moment she found out that I could not speak. But I wanted to bring up the subject of his disease and this seemed to be my least creepy option. Mom is always pointing out when Eliza and I say creepy things.

"Yeah," he replied looking at his feet hanging over the tree branch again.

"You don't have to be embarrassed about it around me, because I can't talk. I'm going to start school in fall not knowing how to talk."

"But your parents didn't give you up; they love you."

"Yeah, but it's not your fault your parents did that to you. You didn't choose to be sick, but I did choose not to speak. I use to be able to speak a little when I was little, but I gave it up because it was hard."  
>"And now you've gotta learn it all over again?" he asked and I nodded. "Hey, what school are you going to in the fall?"<p>

"Pizza H-U-T Junior High School," I answered. All of the schools around here were named after the corporations that sponsored them. Dad said that the pizza was our school mascot and our day planners had pizza's on the cover with the words, "We deliver." The school's motto was, "We deliver academic achievements and pizza." They also served pizza in the cafeteria every day, explaining why Dad was making us learn how to eat pizza.

"Me too. I made the breadstick roll last year. I even did so well in history, my worst subject, that they considered moving me up from remedial history to regular. But then I failed this big test they gave me at the end, so I'm stuck in remedial history for another year," he replied thinking about his classes, the school's version of the honor roll, and his desire to do better. He got to go to a fancy pizza dinner where he received his award.

"That's cool. Are class announcements really printed on the back of coupon flyers?"

"Yeah, but we never get to order pizza here," he replied dejectedly.

"That's okay, I don't really like pizza that much."

"Why not?"

"I never had it up north. When we moved and dad found out our school sponsorship, he started making us eat it every day."

"Too much of a good thing."

"No, it's kind of weird, because I never had it before. I would prefer caribou stakes."

"We have caribou a lot here," he said as I heard a car pull up. He did not hear it, so he kept talking. "The government mandates what we eat, so our meals have to be unusually healthy and free of processed imitation food. Real food doesn't taste as good and is more expensive, but my doctor says it's good for me. And a lot of the other kids here are allergic to mealworm flour."

'Masen, I'm here. If you don't want me to come in and get you then you need to come outside now,' I heard my mom think once she threw her shield.

"Time for me to leave. My doctor's appointment soon. I go to front to see if mother's here yet," the cell phone translated. It did not always do the best job translating what I said. Sign language was not English, so it was not a simple word for word translation and the program did on occasion produce a choppy translation, like this one.

"Okay, see you later," he said, but he was wondering if I would ever come back.

"I'll be back tomorrow." Then I climbed down the tree and walked back through the facility to the front.

As I went, I found my dad's mind in one of the bathrooms and projected, 'Mom's here. I'm leaving.'

'Work hard son,' he thought as he cleaned a very nasty toilet.

And so Mom took me to speech therapy, but I came back the next day and many days after that and made friends with Robby. Jackson and Scryan had some shocking visions, but after a few days they got used to them and were able to come inside and get mentees of their own. And since my dad said that they both had epilepsy, to explain their visions, Mrs. Smith paired them with defectives too. Eliza had a hard time getting used to all of the horrible memories these children held, but eventually she got tired of waiting in the car by herself and tried to give it a go. And since Dad said that she was even more messed up than me, except for that she could speak, Mrs. Smith gave her a defective too. Lily had already been paired with a defective, because she had asked for her, so that made five of us. And so Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rosalie now had five defectives they knew of to choose from.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: What do you think? Please review- it'll spead up my posting of the next chapter.<p>

Breaking News: I've been nominated for an Emerging Swan award for best oldie but goodie author! Woohoo! And The Gall Stone of Doom has been nominated in the Best Supernatural/Fantasy/Horror/Spiritual/Sci/Fi and the Best Humor categories for completed full length stories. This story, Bezoars of Yesterday and Tomorrow, has been nominated for Best Drama/Angst/Hurt/Comfort WIP and Best Supernatural/Fantasy/Horror/Spiritual Sci-Fi WIP. Yay! .com

I keep getting nominated, but I have yet to win anything. I would really like to win one of these someday and that can't happen without you, the readers. So if you enjoy my writing, this story, and/or The Gall Stone of Doom, please go vote.


	21. Book1 Carlisle ch9

Carlisle POV:

"Yes, but that's how they've always met before, with just the three chiefs. Right now Masen is suggesting that they take the meeting over to Walrus Island and that they call off the storm. They agreed to the meeting place, but they're only willing to turn down the storm, not stop it all together, because it's a lot of work to make a hurricane and they don't want to start from scratch if they can't work out an agreement," Nessie replied.

I nodded and waited in silence for a minute before Masen telepathed the latest news to our group. 'They're in agreement to talk at Walrus Island. We just need to turn down the ring of fire long enough for Jake to cross.'

"I'm on it," Nahuel replied, getting up from his chair and heading up the stairs, presumably to let Jacob pass through the ring. We used to have a tunnel that went under it, but we destroyed it ourselves during the Volturi conflict. It was probably for the best that we had never built a replacement, because the beavers might have found it and used it to get in.

It was another ten minutes before Masen announced that Jacob and the other chiefs had all made it safely through the storm to Walrus Island and were talking. Normally Masen, Eliza, and Edward could not hear thoughts all of the way from Walrus Island, so I asked, "How are you hearing this?"

"From Seth and Leah. They were all in their wolf forms up until a minute ago. Seth and Leah were keeping tabs on Jacob," Edward answered.

"But now he's human again?" I asked.

"And we won't know what happened until he transforms back," Nessie finished.

We all waited in silence for half an hour until Jacob turned back into a wolf and Masen began relaying his thoughts. 'They wanted me to hand over Jennifer again, but this time they just wanted to perform an abortion and then they promised they would return her alive, instead of dead like they were insisting on last meeting. I offered that we would perform the abortion ourselves, because we have two doctors on our side and they have none. They agreed, but then there was a lot of arguing over the specifics, because they wanted it done now and they wanted to watch. I told them no and asked for two weeks to determine the safest means of abortion, so that we don't hurt Jennifer. We eventually settled on one and that they can inspect her once it's over. Seth, I really hope you're right about the due date and that she goes into labor right on time, otherwise they're gonna be on us again.'

Like Bella's pregnancy with Nessie, all of the hybrid pregnancies had lasted no more than six weeks. Jennifer was five weeks in already, so she needed just one more week to come to term. Like the Quileutes before Leah, all the shifters in the other two tribes were male, so they had no experience with female shifters or hybrid pregnancies. They assumed that Jennifer's pregnancy would last nine months, same as a human's would. She had only appeared to be about four months pregnant when they had seen her, so they were expecting her to be about five months pregnant now, but if we could just stall them another week until she has her baby, Jacob should be able to convince them that she has gone through with the abortion and that he has held up his end of the agreement. It all pivots on the baby being born as soon as possible.

At least Jacob had bought us another week and the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm, before heading back out into the Atlantic.

Jennifer's baby was born two days early and we were all relieved to hear the cracking sound associated with the amniotic sack breaking. She was recovered and most importantly, not pregnant, when the agreed upon deadline arrived. And with our end of the bargain apparently held up, the shifters left our island. The Quileutes thought then about returning to La Push, but instead decided it was not safe enough, because they were worried their children would be discovered and the conflict with the other shifters would resume. And so the hybrids choose to stay on our island. Edward and Bella were happy with the situation, because it meant they got to spend more time with their two grandsons.

And so the situation was under control, but not quite over. I still had a new country to run, Esme and I still had two wonderful children at home, and now we had two new hosts, Kadia and Kenwei, to raise. Esme never was able to find someone to adopt Benjamin and Tia's eggs and so we had to decide what to do with the hosts. We had planned on keeping them in our house with our boys, but keeping the two sets of children apart was a lot of work. It was even more work keeping them from seeing the hybrid residents of the island, the youngest of which would spontaneously transform into their animal shapes.

I think the turning point for Esme and me was during the hurricane, when we were all gathered in our basement to wait out the storm. Kenwei and Kadia had been spending the night at a friend's house on the mainland, but what if they had not? What if they had been here in the middle of the danger and surrounded by vampires using their power? By shape-shifters shifting into wolves and running around in winds that could lift a human? What if they had seen the eagles or the beavers causing the storm? Their sleepover was only a hundred miles away, so they got hit by the edges of the storm, but it would have been a lot worse if they had been here on the Island at the time and seen everything. And like Jasper had said years ago, the hosts should get to go to regular human school with their own kind; they should have their own lives and not be sequestered on our island indefinitely.

Therefore, Esme and I sent the hosts to boarding school. We were their adoptive parents and tried our best to raise them and Esme still spent a great deal of her time with them, only now that time was mostly off the island and the hosts were not living in our house. The boarding school we choose allowed parental visits on the weekends, during holidays, and sent the kids home over the summer and for winter break, so Esme went to visit them every weekend and holiday and they came back to live with us on Cullen island twice a year.

We still had issues with keeping the secret from them during the summer, but that was a mere two months a year and was relatively easy. The first year we told the hosts that Aiden and Adriel were spending the summer at a summer camp, when in reality Aiden was at the Whitlock's house and Adriel was at the Hale's house during the day and they came home every night after the hosts went to sleep. There was still some contact between the two pairs of children, because they were all present during the winter break, but that was only two weeks a year.

It just so happened that those two weeks started yesterday when Vladimir and I picked the hosts up in the helicopter and brought them home. They were still sleeping this morning when I left them to do some paperwork at the office, but then that was typical for teenagers their age. Kadia was now nineteen and in her senior year of high school, while Kenwei was seventeen and a junior; they were a bit behind in school because of their move across the globe and the Libyan schools they came from were not up to par with the Canadian schools. Esme had worked with them and home schooled them in an effort to get them caught up with their peers, but humans can only learn so fast, so Kadia was two years behind and Kenwei was one.

One of the things that has not changed in the last millennium is that teenagers love to sleep. They had been up all night the night before, because of their usual wild end of term party at their school, and so had fallen asleep last night even before Aiden and Adriel came home from their baseball game. This was the first time the two sets of children would be seeing each other in a year and Esme and I had been hoping to get it over with last night when we were both home. But then the humans fell asleep too early and threw a wrench into our plans. I could not stay home from work today, because I had promised to video chat with one of the Asian coven leaders at noon and I wanted to be prepared for it first, so I had to go. Thus I was understandably anxious about leaving Esme at home all day with our four kids and I came home as soon as my meeting was over.

"Where is everyone?" I asked Esme after giving her a kiss on the lips. I had expected to come home to a full house, but all I heard was a pair of heart beats and even breathing from upstairs. The humans could not possibly be asleep again, could they?

"The boys took off to go snowboarding. Emmett came over with his girls and offered to take them. Our girls were still asleep, so after the morning I had, I let them go. They promised to be back just after dinner," Esme answered.

"The girls slept the entire day?" I asked for clarification. If the girls really were sleeping this much, then I would have to call the school and complain that the end of term party had been too wild. Sure the kids should be allowed to celebrate, but the school normally shuts the party down by two in the morning, which means the girls normally only sleep an extra four hours or so. But they were out by six last night and it was now two in the afternoon and that was too long for humans to sleep.

"They woke up right after the boys left. They ate and used the restroom, but they were still yawning, so I sent them back to bed. I questioned them on why they were so tired and they blamed it on studying too hard for finals. Do you think we're putting too much pressure on them to get good grades?"

"No, I think the school officials let their end of term party go all night and into the morning."

"I guess..."

"I know you like giving the girls the benefit of the doubt, but we can ask one of the mind-readers to tell us what happened."

"Or we can ask Jackson when Emmett gets back with the kids. He was here earlier and he went with them. Either way, I'll have to call the school about this problem as soon as term resumes," Esme said, but she looked like she had something else on her mind that was bothering her.

"What's wrong?"

"I confiscated a disturbing comic book from Jackson earlier," she revealed, retrieving a comic from its hiding place in the china cabinet. "He makes them himself." I took the comic book from her and flipped through the hand drawn pages. "I'll have to call his parents, but then with Alice's gift, maybe she already knows. I can't believe that they would just let him see this kind of stuff…maybe they can't stop his visions? But they should at least be able to stop him from making them into comic books and sharing them with all of the kids."

While Esme continued on expounding her worries and concerns, I read the comic. It started out with a scene I recognized as the second implantation we had held on our island and it seemed to focus on Randall and the implantation of his host. He was one of the nomads who had fought with us during both wars and he was also one of my dear friends. I met him not long after he was turned, when he was just starting his life as a nomad. I was able to convince him of the value of human life, but he never did come around to my diet, not even more recently when we offered him synthetic. But that being said, he was very civilized for a carnivorous vampire.

Randall had a mate once, back in the twenty-second century. Not long after our family went into hiding with the hatchlings, he and Denise, his mate, got into a fight with another pair of nomads over hunting rights. She died, but he got away and was able to separate and pick off his enemies one at a time. I was upset that we had been unable to help, but I had not learned of the conflict until long after the fact, when he stayed with us on our island during the Volturi War, so there was nothing I could do.

Not long after we learned that Denise had been dead for hundreds of years, Randall surprised us all by disgorging an egg. It turns out my old friend had been with many nomad females and could not figure out who the mother was. Whoever she was, she was not his beloved Denise, just someone he could relieve tension with. She was not someone he wanted to be the mother of his egg, so he decided he did not want to think about it and he would just raise his egg on his own. And that is what he did; he placed his egg in a flow cell, waited until the end of the war, and implanted it the first chance he got.

His host was one of the oldest hosts we had to choose from that day. Randall was not quite certain what to do with a human, so he picked a young woman named Shada, who he thought looked like she could take care of herself. At the age of sixteen, she knew how to meet her basic needs, so as long as he provided money and a roof over her head, she could cook and clean and get herself to school on time. Jackson's comic book showed a page on Shada doing just that, as Randall stayed back and watched.

Shada was very lonely living with Randall. He was too preoccupied with his fear that he might hurt her and thereby damage his egg, so he would go about his usual nomadic ways and leave her alone for weeks at a time. Shada was new to Canada, having been brought here by the Nigerian coven after being infected with New Ebola, so she did not have any friends and it was hard for her to make new ones. When a young male human named Rainier, who was only a few years older, started paying her attention, she was very receptive. She got pregnant and when he got kicked out of his parents' house, she let him move in with her. There was a sketch of him moving in while she had a clearly defined baby-bump.

The cabin Randall built her was small and he was a bit surprised to come back from a particularly long hunting trip to find two and a half humans where he had left only one. He took off again to wrap his head around this idea and he came back determined to make this work. He valued human life and he was going to ensure that his human got one. She was not quite twenty and not even close to being done with her Bachelor's degree, but if she wanted a family, he would help her have one. And Rainier kept her company, which meant he did not have to, so he could be gone for longer periods of time.

Rainier got used to Randall not being around and decided that as the man of the house, he had free rain. He took care of Shada and baby Brooke for a while, but he became frustrated with his situation and began to take it out on Shada, first with his words and then with his fists. And then Randall came home to find Rainier choking Shada. Jackson probably did not know what he was drawing, but judging from the way Rainier had Shada pinned up against the wall and had his hand under her skirt, he looked like he was about to rape her.

Randall rushed in, pulled Rainier off of his human, and drank him dry before Shada even knew what was happening. Brooke had been cowering under the table, trying to hide from the screaming and fighting, but she was peeking out in Jackson's drawing. Most likely, the toddler saw her father's death. I wanted to know how Randall resolved the situation, but everything was fine again, minus one human, on the next page. He stayed home more and added on another two rooms to the cabin to give the growing family more space, but there was nothing about what the humans had seen him do or what he did with the body.

Randall must have been growing more attached to his humans, because on the next page he was making dinner with them, helping out around the house, and watching little Brooke so that Shada could study. When another man came around looking for Shada's affection, Randall over-reacted and drank him too, and this time it was very clear that both she and Brooke saw. There was even a scene where they watched with wide eyes through the window as he buried the body in the woods outside their cabin. And then everything was fine again and there were more happy domestic scenes.

The Mounties came around asking about the where-a-bouts of the dead human and neither Brooke nor Shada said anything. Instead they packed up and moved with Randall when he asked them too. They stayed in an apartment in the city while he built a new, even larger, cabin in the woods on the other side of Canada. They moved in with him again, as if they were not the least bit afraid of him. In fact, Shada seemed to be in love with him, because there were several scenes showing her advances. Randall ducked and dodged her kisses and hugs at first, but she was carrying his egg and he enjoyed being around her. He seemed to find her smell intoxicating, so he would try to get as close as possible to her, smell her, and then pull away, but she would turn around and hug him and pull her body too close to his. Judging by the amount Brooke grew, they played this game for some time, but then Randall must have given in, because there was a drawing of him and Shada naked in bed together. The last picture in the comic book showed the three of them, the vampire, the host, and the human child, together as a happy family.

Now I knew why Esme was so concerned. Alice and Jasper would probably be most concerned by the sex scenes Jackson had drawn, although I am sure the boy did not know what he was drawing; the scenes with the human carnage were the most detailed, so they were the most likely subject that had fascinated our young artist. That and Jackson had a thing for hosts. He liked battle scenes and fighting, but there were almost always hosts involved somewhere, unless it was from that dark period of our past when hosts were unknown.

"I'll have to pay Randall a visit to talk about this," I said. I had just seen Randall a few days ago, because he was one of the people who frequently volunteered to help me with my governmental duties, but I had no idea of what was happening with him back home with his host. I did not even know that Shada had a daughter or that he was romantically involved with her. Normally I like to keep out of other people's private lives, but this could not be ignored. Shada's life was at risk.

Not only were there all the usual risks involved with being intimate with a human, but this could turn into another Bella all over again. What if Shada got pregnant with a hybrid? The hybrid will grow and tear open the mother long before Randall's egg has completed its parasitism. Sure we knew from Masen's parasitism of Noah that hosts could regenerate faster than humans, but hybrid births are violent and I doubted whether the host would live long enough for the egg to have a chance of healing her.

I can only hope that Randall has been taking his egg-control blood regularly. Egg-blood prevents gamete formation, so it should protect against all forms of parity, including hybrid pregnancies, because if he is not making sperm, then there is no way that Shada could get pregnant. That probably explains why Randall is on the list of egg-blood recipients in the first place, despite the fact that he is currently unmated. I had assumed that he was worried about having another motherless egg, but now that I knew about his relationship with his hosts, I was sure that this was the real reason, because he had not been taking it before he left the island.

Okay, so Shada probably would not get pregnant and if she had survived this long, Randall probably knew what he was doing in the bedroom, but even so, I would have to talk to him about this. Both his host and her daughter had seen him kill, drink blood, and bury the body. Shada had even lied to the local authorities about it. Maybe the host knowing too much was forgivable, inevitable even, but the next generation should be protected and insulated from our peculiarities. The secret, at the very least, had to be kept and Randall was clearly not keeping it from Shada and Brooke.

"Yes, that poor child: just think what she must have seen?" Esme replied concerned.

"We can start by calling Alice and Jasper and letting them know what is going on," I suggested and that is just what we did. Alice said that they would have a talk with her son.

Then our girls finally woke up and Esme fed them dinner. We said that we ate while they were sleeping and then we gave them a lecture on staying up all night having wild parties.

"Hi Mom, hi Dad," Aiden announced, coming in the front door with his brother behind him, as we were loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher.

"How was snowboarding with Uncle Emmett?" Esme asked, as we all moved into the living room.

"Awesome! I did some really cool tricks Mom!" Adriel replied.

"Yeah, we had a great time. Uncle Emmett walked us up to the tree-line, but he let us walk the rest of the way home by ourselves," Aiden said, answering the question that his mother was implying.

"That's great. Kadia and Kenwei are home," I said, trying to break the ice between the two sets of kids. They were looking at each other, but not saying anything.

"Finally," Aiden said going up to hug his sisters. He did not breathe while he was doing it, which meant he also did not talk, and waited until he restored his personal space before continuing. "Adriel and I were wondering all morning if you were ever gonna wake up. You missed a really awesome snowboarding trip."

"Yeah," Adriel said, following his brother's lead and swiftly hugging his sisters.

The six of us sat down in the living room and told stories about the events of the last five months, covering everything that has happened since summer vacation ended and the girls left again for boarding school. There were new boyfriends for both of them, dances, and school yard fights about backpacks and pencils. But after an hour, the stories ran out and Kenwei turned to Aiden and asked, "What about you? What have you and Adriel been up to while we were gone?"

This was an awkward question for my boys to answer, because they had not done anything new in the last five months. They still have all the same friends and they have not learned anything new in school, because they already finished every class we could think of to subject them too. Well, except for human lessons, but the boys could not very well announce that they had been learning about the five human food groups. Well they could, but whenever they did they repeated Vladimir's joke about the five food groups being Sudanese, Asian, Mexican, Filipino, and European.

"We went snowboarding with Uncle Emmett this morning," Adriel offered.

"No, I mean like at school. What grade are you in now?" Kenwei persisted.

"Um seventh grade," Aiden answered. That was the answer Emmett was teaching the kids for when we move south and integrate them into human society. That was also the answer he had given his sisters eight years ago, when they were first adopted. We told the girls that our boys had received faulty genetic engineering and therefore aged slowly, but it was only now, when eight years had passed and our boys did not look a day older, that the realization of what that meant dawned on the girls.

"You were in seventh grade back when we were adopted," Kadia said. "We used to play together, because we were the same age."

"Yeah, what happened?" Kenwei asked.

"You remember that we told you about their genetic engineering modifying the wrong gene. They age slowly," I said, hoping to steer this conversation onto the right track.

"Yeah, but they don't learn slowly. I know for a fact that they're really smart. Why haven't they gone on to the next grade?" Kenwei asked.

"Because they haven't matured enough. They mature as slowly as they grow and we were hoping to send them away to school soon, but they haven't reached puberty, so we decided to keep them home for a few years until they catch up," Esme answered.

"Oh," Kadia replied.

"I guess…but Mom, I think you should just keep homeschooling them. It's not fair to them that they're still in junior high and it's been almost a decade," Kenwei replied.

"Okay sweetie, I'll work on it," Esme replied.

Kadia and Kenwei were satisfied with that and Esme brought out Monopoly, so the six of us had a family game night until the girls went to bed. Then Esme and I enjoyed a peaceful night of reading with our boys. In the morning the boys went off on another adventure with Emmett and Esme took the girls shopping, leaving me free and clear to track down Randall.

Randall was surprised to find me knocking on his cabin door, when normally I called and he came to me. "Why are you here, Carlisle?" he asked.

"I found out about your family and I'm worried that your activities with Shada might harm your egg," I explained.

"You don't have to worry about that; she heals real quickly whenever I'm a bit rough and her blood doesn't appeal to me that way. It's more of a flower that I want to smell, but not eat."

Well that was one concern out of the way, but I had several more. "What about protection? If she gets pregnant, she could die and you can't just bite her to save her like we did with Bella. If you bite her, the egg dies," I said.

"I'm on egg-blood."

"Yes, but is she on birth control? It would make me feel better if you were both taking something."

"Okay, that's reasonable. I can ask her to start. Is there anything else you want?"

"Yes. I know you said Shada's blood doesn't bother you, but what about Brooke's? You're living awfully close to a young child and they tend to get a lot of scrapes."

"Brooke just turned five; she hardly ever falls now. There were a few close calls before, but I managed to control myself and Shada got her cleaned up. I'm a very old vampire now, my friend, you don't have to worry about me so much."

"Well there is one other thing I am worried about: you've broken the secret," I said rather gravely. The law says that those who violate the secret must be killed. Randall was my friend and the last thing I wanted to do was to have to enforce that law, but the law would not hold unless someone enforced it.

"No, I haven't. Shada's my host. Sure she knows, but she's not going anywhere. She stays in this cabin and attends all of her classes online. We even get the groceries delivered. Surely you won't kill me for telling my host?"

"And what about Brooke? She's not your host. Our family has always gone to great lengths to hide what we are from the children of our hosts."

"Brooke? She's my daughter, of course it's alright that I told her! I'm going to change her as soon as she's old enough; that's the main reason I don't let them leave anymore. Shada, I can trust to keep quiet, but Brooke is a little too young to trust with something like that."

"You plan on changing Brooke?" I asked, slightly perplexed. I had not even considered this response.

"Yes, I've adopted her. She's very excited to grow up so that I can change her already."

"She knows that you're planning on changing her into a vampire?"

"Yes."

"And she's not afraid?"

"No, why would she be?"

"Because you've killed at least two men in front of her."

"Yeah, but I was protecting her and her mother. I'm their hero."

"Even so, don't do it again. Humans scare easily. They could run away from you one day and tell the world what they saw you do."

"They wouldn't leave me."

"If you freaked them out enough, they would."

"Fine, I won't do it again. I'll be on my best behavior; promise," he said holding his hand up to his heart.

I believed my friend, but I did not leave without questioning Shada and Brooke. Shada seemed madly in love with Randall and Brooke seemed enthralled with her future as a vampire. Neither of them accepted my offer to take them away from him, even though I promised to protect them. He was their protector and they did not feel they needed any protecting from him. They wanted to stay. And since everything was above board with Randall, I went home.

We had a stressful two weeks, with the boys dodging meal times and the girls increasingly noticing the little things, like how cold we all are. But we did our best to keep up the façade and soon enough the girls went back to school and it was over again until the next summer vacation.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: What do you think about Randall and his relationship with his host? Should he try to save her by changing her?<p>

Emerging Swan Awards are open until tomorrow! Please go vote!


	22. Book2 Masen ch6

Masen's POV:

We only went to the group home four days a week, because the adults always had something else for us to do on the fifth weekday, like this week when they announced we would be registering for school today. Allison and I were standing around outside our van and watching Jackson. He was supposed to be climbing into our van, but instead he was talking to Lily and Aiden near Uncle Emmett's van. He had a couple of his hand-made comics in his hands and I watched as Jackson "accidentally" left one of them in between the seats for Uncle Emmett to find.

Jackson had just finished writing this particular story last night, so I knew it was about a female vampire named Ides that lost her mate, back in the time when vampires still knew the secret of the eggs. They had only been together for eight decades, but Ides never got over his loss. Twenty years after his death, she decided to become a single parent and implant her egg. That child, Tacitus, was her only reminder she had left of her mate and she loved him dearly, but it still was not enough to take away the pain of her loss.

Ides wanted to die and join her mate, but she also knew she had to remain alive to care for her son. And then she thought she could cure her grief with more children, the way Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rosalie were currently trying to do. She was in para with her third egg when it exploded and killed her, leaving two little kids to raise themselves. According to Allison, a child's power was controlled epigenetically and partially based on what the parents _wanted_. As long as the parents _want_ to live, powers that might be lethal are selected out. Ides _wanted_ death and so produced an egg with the power to explode into a violent death.

Tacitus tried to take care of himself and his little sister, but he was only five hundred years old. He was old enough to hide in a cave during the day and to lure humans to their deaths, but he was no match for a full grown vampire. A nomad came across the pair of orphans and decided it was best to put them out of their misery by ending their lives. And without Ides there to protect them, they were defenseless and died a swift death.

The point of the comic was that it is dangerous to go around wishing for your own death, because you just might get your wish and drag your kids down with you. Jackson was hoping that the comic about Ides and her children would make Uncle Emmett realize that it is dangerous to wish for death. Uncle Emmett was still struggling with the death of his daughter Angie. With any luck, he might even come out of his depression, if only for his children's sake. And that was why Jackson was leaving the comic between the car seats, where our uncle will find when he cleans out the van.

"Jackson, you're in our van!" my dad called, trying to get our group of kids to actually climb inside the van and wait patiently. He knew what Jackson was up to and had waited until the comic was in position to call attention to him, but none of us knew if it was going to work and Dad had other things, like getting us into the van, on the forefront of his mind.

Eliza and Scryan were already seated in the back of our van and Allison and I were at least standing nearby. We were doing a pretty good job of milling around and making it look like we were not actively disobeying my dad's requests to get in the van. If we just had Jackson with us, then Dad could make us all get in and wait for Grandma Esme in a more controlled manner. And more importantly, Dad could win his bet with Uncle Emmett that he would get to the school first. Uncle Emmett was already loosing, because none of his kids, not even Lily, who was posturing for the front seat, was yet in Uncle Emmett's van. Grandma Esme, who stood a good chance of getting the front seat from Lily, was not even here yet and we could not leave without her, so no one wanted to hurry up and trap ourselves inside, just so we could wait longer.

And then Kair and Kare materialized for the second time. Their wormhole opened up right next to Uncle Emmett's van and they were out of their hole, climbing over the back seat, and settling into the far back seat before anyone had a chance to realize what was happening. We had not seen them since they told us to drop the atomic bomb on Volterra and that they would be coming for human school with us, so their sudden appearance was a bit of a shock.

After nearly eighty years without any contact, everyone had started to think that they were not coming for school like they had said. They probably wanted to come but their parents had vetoed their idea and not allowed it. Or maybe something came up in the future and it just was not a good time for them to visit us. But now here they were buckling themselves into the back of Uncle Emmett's van. Everyone turned to stare at the new arrivals.

"What're you two doing here?" Uncle Jasper asked, climbing into the backseat of Uncle Emmett's van. The twins were in the way back, so he was in the row in front of them, kneeled on the seat facing backwards. He was going with us today, because a parent was required for each child, so Ashley was spending the day with her mom. There had been some talk that Aunt Alice might register the kids for school, but if she did that, Scryan and Jackson would pull a prank and we would never get to the school today. Sometimes life would be funner without the psychics around; at least I got to see the prank in vision form.

"Registering for school with everybody else," Kare answered. She looked and sounded exactly like her twin, so I only knew that this one was Kare because I heard her think her sister's name in her thoughts.

"We thought you weren't coming. You haven't been around," Uncle Jasper said.

"No, we're coming. We've just been busy at more interesting times," Kair replied.

"And what's the story?" he asked, referring to what story we were going to tell the humans. We had already worked out our story, minus two time traveling twins.

"Same as before, except you have three sets of twins. We're the same grade as Violet and Adriel, just a few months younger," Kair answered.

"Alright, but this isn't a game: you have to show up for school on time every weekday."

"We will," both girls chimed simultaneously.

"Now give me a hug; it's so good to see you two again," he said sharing his happiness, joy, and love. "And you have to stick around and see your mother this evening."

The twins agreed and Grandma Esme finally arrived, so we all piled in the vans to leave. Uncle Jasper climbed out of Uncle Emmett's car and got into the front passenger's seat in our van, because with the addition of Kair and Kare, Uncle Emmett's was full. Grandma Esme had been planning on ridding with Uncle Emmett, but now there was no room, so she decided to take her own car. Her car was not nearly as lame, but it was still just a simple sedan without a hover engine or missile-proof armor or anything.

When we got to the school, we all went into the office together and the four adults asked for enrollment forms for the eleven of us. There were not enough seats for everyone, so we kids went back outside to wait, but we could still hear them through the wall and their thoughts were perfectly clear, so we were listening in.

"There seem to be a lot of you in here all at once; do you know each other?" the receptionist asked.

"Yes, we were all part of the same nature commune up in Nunavut. We decided to rejoin civilization, so we all moved here together," Grandma Esme answered.

There were a lot of nature communes in northern Canada right now; it has been a popular fad ever since a Classic celebrity decided to start one in Yukon. Because of the clockwise rotation of the North American plate over the last thousand years, Yukon was now quite a bit further north than Nunavut. They had both started off in the Arctic circle, but now only Yukon was within the ever diminishing circle; it still had the permafrost, no trees, and everything. So Yukon was a more desirable place for a nature commune than Nunavut and was home to the most expensive communes, but Nunavut was home to its fair share of communes too.

The goal of the communes was to get away from the big cities, modern conveniences, and live off of the land the way their ancestors did before they invented farming. Hunting and gathering requires a lot of land, so it was something only the super wealthy could afford to do. Humans normally bored with commune life quickly, so they would frequently sell their commune shares and move back to civilization. And since that was similar to what our family had done, it fit perfectly with our cover story.

"Very good. I'm sure your children will fit right in here at Pizza Hut Junior High," the human replied. "With splicing like yours I'm sure they'll be very popular."

Splicing was the common term for germ-line genetic modification. The filthy rich tended to modify their children more, but everyone had had at least the basic life extending modifications sometime in their ancestry; splicing was what allowed the Classics to extend their lifespans so drastically in such a short period of time.

"Oh no, our children haven't been spliced, they're natural. No one has been spliced in generations. We're Antisplicitarians; it's one of the commune laws," Grandma Esme replied.

Antisplicitarianism was a religion for people who did not believe in splicing and wanted natural selection to be able to take its course. Of course the only people who belonged to this religion had already had extensive splicing done in their past to remove all deleterious alleles and extend their lifespans so that they could afford not to splice their children.

"Oh, sorry, I just assumed…" the human replied embarrassed.

"No worries, but actually that is something I'd like to talk with the principal about; there's a minor defect in my family," Uncle Jasper said.

"And my son has a speech problem," Dad added.

There was a bit of a backlash in the community regarding the burden placed on society from the defective children of Antisplicitarians, but religious discrimination was still illegal, so school officials were not allowed to pass judgment on parents like mine. Never the less, this one was thinking that something should be done about this problem. 'Maybe the Antisplicitarians should pay a higher tax'.

"I'll go see if he's available," the human said, not knowing that Scryan and Aunt Alice had already seen that he would be available today.

By the time she came back, all our parents were done with their forms and had everything ready. Once the forms were turned in and checked, Grandma Esme left and Uncle Emmett came outside to wait with us kids. And then the principal was ready, so Uncle Jasper called his five kids in to go meet him and Dad called Eliza and me in.

Once introductions were done, Uncle Jasper began his explanation of what was wrong with his children. There was nothing wrong with Kair, Kare, and Allison, but Scryan and Jackson were going to pretend to have epilepsy, in case either of them had a vision during school. As for Ashley, she was supposed to have such severe schizophrenia that she would not be able to go to school at all and was being home schooled.

Two different genetic defects running in the same family was very unusual, which is why we all had to learn an elaborate explanation for it. "When I was younger, I had very mild schizophrenia," Uncle Jasper began and I sat down next to Allison, to appear more human. "It was treatable and didn't affect my lifespan, so my parents chose to keep me. My wife was in a similar situation with her epilepsy, only her parents didn't keep her and she grew up in a group home. We met at University, fell in love, got married, moved to the Antisplicitarian commune, had six children, and lived happily ever after."

"Why did you choose to become Antisplicitarians? If you knew you had defects that needed splicing out, why didn't you splice?" Principal Patel asked.

"We didn't want to splice our children, especially after the way my wife grew up in that group home, even though she had a perfectly normal life expectancy and only a few seizures every now and then. Plus, we were advised that the two affected genes both happen to be very close to genes affecting intelligence. My wife and I are both geniuses and if we spliced, then the odds were that our children would be of only average intelligence. We didn't want to risk it," Uncle Jasper answered.

"And do any of your children share your intelligence?" the principal asked. While he spoke, he was thinking, 'Yes! I might actually be able to win the county science fair this year! Or the State spelling bee; we were so close last year. If one of these kids is a genius, they might offset our abysmal standardized test results and get me some recognition.'

"Yes, all of them are very intelligent, but the oldest two are geniuses. Allison's specialty is math and science; Jackson's is history. I know you won't have classes advanced enough for them, but I doubt any school would," Uncle Jasper said.

"They're already in the highest grade we offer here, so I can't move them up a grade. But, I can make sure they get into the advanced placement classes," the principal said. 'The science fair is in the bag then,' he thought with an almost predatory smile on his lips. But then he started thinking of all the trouble his star pupil, Yara, was causing. 'I'll need to keep them away from Yara and her crusade to eliminate pepperoni from the cafeteria. There'll be no stopping her if two more genius kids get involved with that health-science club of hers. Okay, maybe pepperoni _is_ linked to heart disease. So what? Replacement hearts are cheap and I'll get fired if pepperoni is banned and the corporation will just bring in a new principal that _is_ willing to serve it.'

"I think all of my children will qualify for advanced placement. They have a placement test scheduled for this afternoon," Uncle Jasper replied.

"Oh yes, I see. Very good. It looks like all of the children from your commune are scheduled for testing." 'I'll have to keep the lot of them away from Yara.'

"Yes, they were all home schooled and are very bright."

"Now I do have some concerns about your sixth child, the one who won't be attending my school. I see you've registered with the district to homeschool her because of medical issues. I know you were homeschooling the children before, but as they get older, teaching can become more difficult. We do have a program for special needs children here that I highly recommend. You can try it and if it doesn't work out, you could always go back to homeschooling," the principal suggested.

"No thank you. I'm well aware of what special needs programs are like. They assume that all children with medical or physical disabilities also suffer from mental impairments, but my Ashley is just as bright as the rest of them."

"Very good. Oh, there must be something wrong here…it says that Ashley is the same age as Brandon, which would make them twins. That can't be right. You already have two sets of twins," the principal said. From his thoughts I could tell he was just now looking at the paperwork for the Whitlock kids, instead of worrying about the growing pepperoni crisis.

Scryan would be going by his middle name, Brandon, while in school. Scryan was a unique name with a very specific meaning and we did not want the humans guessing at what it meant, so we had all been practicing calling him Brandon.

"Yes, that's right. My wife and I have three sets of twins. We had trouble conceiving so we used fertility treatments and got pregnant with multiples each time. The doctor didn't advise carrying more than two, so we had each pregnancy reduced to just two," Uncle Jasper lied. "We actually tried to reduce Zakaira and Zikare down to one baby, but since they're identical twins, they were both in the same embryonic sack and the doctor didn't notice until after we had aborted the other embryos."

Zakaira and Zikare were common names for twins, thanks to Allison and Jackson's hosts, who were the original owners of those names. They were both famous scientists amongst the human and Zakaira's contribution to the field of genetic engineering was so great that she was considered the founder of splicing. Her human descendants even have a popular reality show where they fight over control of the premier splicing company in the world, which she founded. As a result, her name and that of her twin were household names and commonly used for twins.

"That is some coincidence," Principal Patel replied, readjusting his paper-weight, so it sat just right on his desk. It had his name on it and was centered on his desk, as if someone else would accidentally mistake his desk for their own. Or maybe he just forgot his name sometimes. Humans do that sort of thing; Uncle Emmett said so.

"Yes it is. But back to the matter at hand: Jackson and Brandon could potentially have seizures while at school, even though they're on medication for it. Jackson's epilepsy is much more under control than Brandon's, so I'm mostly concerned that Brandon will seize during class. He isn't a danger to himself, because he doesn't fall down or bite his tongue or anything, but he does freeze for the duration and is unaware of his surroundings. If that happens, you should call me and I'll pick him up immediately. I'll have to take him to the doctor's and get him checked out. But still, we would be more comfortable if one of the other children his grade could be in every class with him," Uncle Jasper said.

"And I would like to suggest that my son Masen be the one paired with Brandon," my dad added, pointing to me. "Masen is in the same grade and I also think it's best if one of our other children his age is in every class with him, because of his speech impairment."

"Ah yes, Dr. Swan, I see here you've also got a set of twins that'll be starting here this fall?" he asked, thinking that four sets of twins in his office at one time was very odd.

"Yes, but unlike Mr. Whitlock here, my set were an accident. My wife and I were not trying to get pregnant at all, but it is what it is, so let's move on. Masen's speech impairment is so severe that he can't speak. We were working with him when he was little, but we recently came to the conclusion that he needs a professional, which is why my family decided to move back to civilization.

"Masen has been in speech therapy all summer, but he still has several years of therapy left before he will be able to communicate effectively. He speaks sign language at home and he has a translator program on his cell, but technology might fail. All of the children from our commune speak sign language, because of Masen, so I would like one of them to be in all of his classes. Since Brandon requires the same, it makes since to pair them," my dad concluded.

"Very well, I'll arrange it. Normally cell use isn't permitted except during technology class, but I'll make sure all of his teachers are made aware of the situation. Does his twin also have a similar problem?" the principal asked.

"No, I talk just fine," Eliza answered snippily, like she could not believe someone was accusing her of being like me. I am pretty sure she was upset about having to be my twin, just because we are the same age. Or maybe she was upset that people were going to think we were related.

After that the meeting ended so we all went for a walk around the grounds to wait for our placement tests. We spent a lot of time talking about how much a human our age would know and how to answer the questions on the tests. Our parents wanted us to place no higher than the honors classes of our grade level, because we would really stand out if the humans knew we were really at University level in terms of classes.

When it was finally time, we went into a classroom filled with much flimsier desks, walls, and floors than in our classroom back on the island. Our parents had to wait outside, while we filled out thick white packets full of very elementary questions. I made sure to get the hardest question or two wrong in each section and not work too quickly. We were all doing everything so slowly around the humans that I even had time to monitor everyone else's answers.

I had to remind Allison that she was only supposed to be super smart when it came to math and science, so she should make sure to get a few of the English questions wrong. I stopped Lily and Aiden from accidentally choosing the same questions to get wrong, so that their tests would not look identical. And most importantly, I transferred questions and answered back and forth between us and our parents, so that they could help us with the human specific questions. We wanted to get some questions wrong, but not the human specific ones, like the five food groups.

We had already covered the basics, but there were a lot of things the humans still had wrong that we would have to pretend were right and we needed help answering those questions. No one ever bothers to teach their children the obscure things humans do not know, but with our parents helping us, we were confident that our tests would not stand out.

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><p>Author's Note:Thank you all for the lovely reviews! I love each and every one of them.<p>

How much trouble do you think 12 pre-teen vampires can get into at a human school? Also, how long do you think Rosalie, Emmett, Carlisle, and Esme should be depressed over the deaths of Carl and Ro? How do you think Jackson's comic book attempt at an intervention will work?


	23. Book3 Jasper ch7

Jasper's POV:

Kair, Kare, and I spent a long time going back in time and looking for interesting days at that ranch house. My baby brother Jeremiah got younger, his children ceased to be born, and my twins got younger right along with them. Shortly after my sister's visits Kare and Kair arrived with, "It's my birthday! I'm 2," buttons pinned to their nightgowns. That meant there would only be twenty-four months left before they would go back inside their own hosts and stop visiting me. Part of me was sad that my time with my babies was coming to an end, but a big part of me was really looking forward to when my older twins would rescue me from this wormhole.

We combed through the past so slowly that another year had passed in reverse for the twins before we made it back to the civil war, which was the when I really wanted to get to. I wanted to see my mother again and tell her about my death myself. Kair and Kare came in wearing party hats and buttons that read, "It's my first birthday!" around the time that law and order was being restored to Texas in the post war era.

Now their hair was reduced to just one inch wisps of blond curls and they kept breaking there leather leash practically every other visit or accidentally letting out their breath. They could not exit the wormhole this far back, so I had to send them home for air and also when they needed to get a new leash put on. Between the breathing and leash breaking our visits were often cut short now, so more visits were packed into the standard unit of untime than before and my girls were growing younger quicker.

I did not want my babies to see the horror that my sisters had said occurred during this time, so I picked them up and ran us further into the past, stopping only once during the entire civil war. I mildly regretted this decision, because it meant that I would never be able to see my brother Elijah and my sister Margery's deaths, but there was nothing I could do about that and it was more important to me to not scar my daughters for life.

Even though the civil war was ragging on around us, this day was relatively calm and mild. The Union troops were holding Galveston to the South, but that city was already evacuated and the Confederates were guarding and protecting our fair Houston. Sure there was a certain amount of dread and despair loaming in the air, but there always was in times of war and today was a good day.

The sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky, even though it was autumn. It was the sixth day of October, eighteen sixty-two and it was also the day Maria took my human life from me. My heart would not stop beating for another two and a half days, but I was already dead. I was determined to tell my mother of my death on this day so that she would know what happened to me. I did not want her waiting around here for her men to come home, because none of us were coming home. Maybe I could even convince her to leave Texas and change history. If she moved, then my younger siblings, Elijah and Margery, might still be alive.

"Grandma?" Kare signed when she arrived with Kair, but Kair was crawling away from her, pulling the leather leash too taught. With Kare's hand gesture, it snapped.

"Not now. Go home you," I answered, sending the girls home to get another joining cord, because I did not want to risk them getting separated and stuck in time. As it was, I took the broken ends and tied them back together, hoping that this quick fix would last until they got home.

"No pull," Kair signed at her sister and then started to crawl away into the future, without her sister.

"Home," Kare signed and started following after, before the leash could snap again.

While the girls were away, obtaining a new leather leash, I located my mother in the living room, mending socks. I did not wait for them to return, because I wanted this conversation to be private.

"Mam, it's Jasper," I whispered into the mesh of space-time. My lungs were not burning full like they had been last time, but they were no longer dangerously empty, thanks to the passage of time and a regular diet of blood. But it would have to do, so I decided this conversation would have to be kept short.

"Jasper? Jasper? Jasper, where are you? Didja come back from the war already? Ya didn't get hurt, didja? Where are ya? Did I just imagine it all? I must be one cracked egg away from the loony bin if I'm hearin' voices," Mam said looking around and not seeing anything.

"I'm here."

"Jasper, but where are ya? Are ya hiding from me? It's not polite to frighten your poor old mother like this."

"I died today."

"No, it can't be! If you're dead, how am I hearing ya? I must be imaginin' this."

"I'm a ghost," I said, remembering my last conversation with my mother in which she asked me if I was a ghost.

"A ghost? No! Not my boy!" she screamed before starting to cry hysterically. I stroked the fabric of space-time on my side of the wormhole, right above where her should was, but I could not make contact and it just made Mam shudder and cry worse. There was nothing I could do, so I let her cry, just waiting for it to stop.

When her tears finally stopped, I spoke again. "Joseph, Pa, dead; not coming back," I said, setting off another wave of sobs from my mother.

"Not my Joseph too," she said, finally starting to calm down.

I waited until she was calm and collected again and it was perfectly quiet before I spoke again. "Lose war; Elijah, Margery die."

"No, no, no, not my babies," she whispered, apparently done with all the screaming, but not with the crying. "What can I do to change it all? Please, I'll do anything."

"Leave Texas," I answered, hoping but not believing that she would. If she had, Elijah and Margery would have been alive in the future and I would not have known to warn my mother. If I had not warned her, then they would be dead. It was a vicious cycle without end.

It was a long time before my mother spoke, but when she did, she promised me, "Jasper, I'll pack the family up and take them away before the Union troops come." She said it so sincerely that I almost believed her. Sure she meant what she said now, but in time, she would forget the danger and forget that she had promised, because human memories fade. And the Union troops never really came…it was lawless Texans that killed my brother and sister.

"Remember we love you, even in death," I said, speaking my final words to my mother, because I was now completely out of breath. It was then that I saw the distinct golden curls move behind me, indicating that my daughters had just arrived. They must have seen the end of our conversation and this must be how they knew that I could talk to my mother through the wormhole if I spoke into the fabric.

"I love you too Jazzybear." The nickname Jazzybear sounded familiar, but I could not remember anyone ever using it before.

I did not want the twins to see my mother like this, so I picked them up and ran further into the past, to before the war started.

"Grandma sad," Kair signed when we stopped.

"Yes," I replied.

"Why?" Kare signed.

"Dead me," I replied.

"No," both girls signed simultaneous.

"Grandma think dead me. Grandma sad," I added. "Air and R know alive me."

The girls nodded and began to look around their surroundings.

"Horse," Kare signed, pointing to the barn where we kept the horses and other animals.

"Ride," added Kair.

I looked more closely at the barn. We were still in the living room of the first house, the one I remembered as a child; the one that was later burned down, but the door was open. I could see the barn from this angle and I decided that I wanted to go inside the barn to see if any of my old animals were there. I had taken my horse to war with me, but we were now before the start of the war, so there was a chance that Sugar was just across the way. I loved Sugar with all of my heart when I was a boy and she was my best friend.

"Move worm hole barn," I signed. I wanted to sign wormhole, but I did not know the sign for that, so I signed the words separately instead.

I bent down and began to push the wormhole in the direction of the barn. The girls helped, but it seemed that the tables were turned now. Before they had been adept at moving the hole and I had been barely budging it, but now I was doing most of the work and they were unskilled in the fine art of wormhole adjusting. But even so, the barn was only twenty-three and a half feet away and we were there in no time.

When we went through the side wall of the barn, I was pleasantly surprised to find not just my horse Sugar, but also my younger self. I was milking my cows and judging by the fullness of my buckets, I would say that I was almost done.

"Cow," I signed to the girls before pointing to the cow I was milking.

"Past past father," Kair replied and I smiled and nodded. If the father that live in her time was current father and I was past father, then past past father seemed as fair of a description as any.

"Yes," I signed as I watched my younger self finish with the cows and carry the milk into the house.

Our cows produced more milk than we could drink, so we used to sell some of it to supplement our income. We sold a lot of things to make do for our large family. We never had extra wool or lamb and pig meat, but I always caught more fish than we could eat, so Mam would fry the extras up and sell them. We also sold extra eggs from our chickens. And then there was our main source of income, our cattle and the occasional horse, so we made enough to get by. But then with all those kids there were always so many things we needed to buy, like cloth, wheat, and produce, which we did not produce on the ranch.

We waited and watched as my younger self returned to the barn and started grooming my horse Sugar. I wanted to ride her again more than anything, but I could not reach her. I lost her when she ran away from Maria and I always regretted it and wondered what happened to her. I should have run with her, but at least one of us got away. I always hoped she had gone back home to Mam and not back to Galveston and the war.

"Name Sugar," I signed and pointed at my horse.

"Horse," Kair signed.

"Ride," Kare added.

And just as the girls said, teenage Jasper saddled up Sugar and went galloping off.

"Follow?" asked Kair.

"Follow," agreed Kare.

"Yes," I signed, wanting to see more of my horse, even if I could not ride her myself.

I pushed the wormhole out of the barn, with minimal help from the girls, and out to the pasture of our ranch, where the other me was galloping around. I pulled the girls into my arms and we watched until the sun set and the other me put Sugar away, before going in the house to eat.

The next day the girls and I went back to the day before that and we spent the morning observing life on the ranch. I made sure to point out all of the animals and name my family members, but we all knew what we were waiting for. Around noon my younger self came out of the barn riding Sugar after having finished all of his chores. But instead of galloping around the yard, young Jasper took off down one of the many trails. He had a basket of eggs and several pints of milk strapped to his saddle and he was heading down a trail that was very familiar to me.

"Follow?" I signed to the girls.

"What?" Kair signed back.

"No understand," Kare signed.

"Go with horse and past past father?" I asked it another way, thinking that I had not taught them the sign for follow yet. Sure they knew it yesterday, but my yesterday was six days in the future for them.

"What?" Kare asked.

"No understand," Kair added.

"Ride horse," I replied, not knowing how to make this any simpler.

"Yes," both girls replied.

I started pushing on the wormhole, but neither girl moved to help me. Instead, they were watching me with confused looks on their faces.

"Help me move worm hole," I signed, taking a break from pushing, because I was not getting very far with just myself pushing.

"How?" Kare and Kair signed simultaneously.

"Push," I signed before demonstrating a push. It was a little more complicated than that, because I had to grab hold of the individual strands in the fabric of time and the strands had to be tugged just so, but I did not know how to explain it, so I settled for showing them.

I showed them a few more times, before signing, "Try you," because I wanted them to help me.

"How?" they repeated.

"Come Air. Show you," I signed, kneeling down so that I was at her level. She crawled closer to me and I took her hand in mine and showed her how to pull at the strings. "Go north, pull like this."

It took her about a dozen tries, but finally she got it and the wormhole jumped and lurched for her. She kept at it, while I signed, "Come R," and repeated the lesson with my other daughter. It took a while, but eventually they were both controlling the wormhole as well as they had been yesterday; or I guess it was tomorrow for them. That must mean that since I taught them this today, tomorrow, their yesterday, they will not know how to control the wormhole at all.

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><p>Author's Note: So what do you think? Please review- I love reviews more than Christmas presents on a hot sunny Southern Californian day.<p>

Up next will be Carlisle's adventure in Brazil when we will see him exercising his leadership skills solving a dispute. How do you think he'll handle it?


	24. Book1 Carlisle ch10

Carlisle POV:

Sending the hosts to human school worked out better than our original plan, as was the case for all of Jasper's suggestions. After boarding school Kadia and Kenwei went off to college together and stayed in the dorms. But even though they were off of the island, they were only twenty-seven miles away and Esme would run to campus to check up on them several times a week. And when she was not there in person, she was calling them on the phone to make sure they were alright and felt the love of a caring mother figure. She wanted them to know that they were not alone in this world.

After university, they moved south and started their lives with the humans and Esme continued to visit them regularly. Taking care of two humans took up a lot of Esme's time, which detracted from the time she had to build our new compound in Manitoba, but it made her happy. She has been so sad ever since Carl died, but now she has two more children who need her. She was so determined to take care of them and Aiden and Adriel, that she hardly had time to be depressed. She was finally getting back to her old self.

The issues that came from raising vampires and humans in the same house were ongoing, as was the situation with the hybrids, who were still running around the island. And all the while, I still had a new country to run. I continued my mission to contact every vampire in the world, time passed, and things had settled down when the next emergency arose. This time the problem was the Amazonian coven; well what was left of it anyway.

Senna, Kachiri, Huilen, and their mates were all killed in the Volturi War. Zafrina and her mate Fernando survived, along with an extended network of Amazonians that had not come to our aid. These were very carnivorous vampires and although they were not quarrelsome, we stayed away from each other due to the polar opposites of our diets and lifestyles. They were the most wild and feral of our kind, roaming over vast stretches of sparsely inhabited jungle like a cat on the prowl. These were vampires who came into contact with people only to eat them, so blending in was not even on their to-do list.

The wild side of the Amazonian coven was composed of Serena, Roberto, Thiago, and Uiara. Thiago was Enrique's brother and Enrique was mated to Kachiri before they were both killed in the war. Uiara was Thiago's mate and the pair had been allied with Roberto since hundreds of years before he even met Serena. Roberto was Serena's mate and Serena was Nahuel's oldest half-sister. She was not originally from the Amazon, but met Roberto while visiting her brother and has been there ever since. She was the most civilized of the three, but she was raised by Johaim, so that was not saying much.

Roberto and Serena had taken Huilen and her mate's eggs, while Uiara and Thiago had adopted Enrique and Kachiri's eggs. That left Zafrina and Fernando with both their own two eggs and two from Senna and Josue. All eight eggs were implanted during the second round of implantations after the war and the eight hosts were taken back to the Amazon. And to support all those future hatchlings, Alice and Esme were working with them to set up a blood manufacturing plant in Brazil. Neither had the time to go in person, but they were sending supplies and building plans south and were in regular communication as to how it was going.

That was the last I had heard from them. As far as I knew, everything was fine. The blood plant was up to a rough start, but there was still plenty of time to iron out the kinks and get it going full blast. Zafrina and Fernando were probably still depressed over the loss of so many of their friends and family, but they were coping. That all changed when I got a call from Fernando.

"Carlisle, help! They're after Zafrina! They're gonna kill her," Fernando cried into the phone.

"What's happened? Why are they after her?" I asked.

"The hosts are dead and they blame her. Please hurry."

"How many vampires are we dealing with?"

"Four: Thiago, Roberto, Serena, and Uiara. Don't bring Nahuel; he'll side with them," Fernando answered.

Given that Nahuel was still living on our island with the other hybrids, he was an obvious choice to bring. He was strong and a good fighter and he had a vested interest in the Amazonian coven, because both his aunt and oldest sister had joined it through marriage. But maybe he was too close to the situation. If his sister was on the side that was trying to kill Zafrina, he might side with her and cause us more problems if we were to take him with us. No, it would be easier if the hybrids were not involved with this one. I will wait to tell them about what is going on until I get back.

"Alright, we're on our way. Tell the others I ordered them to stop and wait for us," I said before hanging up the phone.

I tried to call all four of them and Zafrina on their cell phones, but none of them were answering, so I gathered up as many of our fighters as I could. It did not help that Serena was a hybrid, because that meant that neither Scryan nor Alice could see what was going on. Without a psychic report on the safety, no one wanted to go; instead they wanted to stay and watch their hosts and let the commotion in Brazil sort itself out. But I was able to get Edward, Emmett, Vladimir, Stefan, Uwa, Randall, and Fred to go with me.

It was pouring down rain when we arrived at the airport in Brazil. We were spread out over the globe, so rather than take our helicopter, it was faster for everyone to take separate jets and meet up at the Cruzeiro do Sul airport just south of the Amazonian coven's current territory; speed was a necessity when a life was at stake. We ran north through the forest in formation at lightening speeds. I could tell Edward wanted to break the pack and run ahead of us, to see if he could get to Zafrina before she was killed. But we were in their territory and they had a strong coven of four and he knew the danger, so he stayed. I regretted it the instant we found our query. Fernando was dry sobbing over a pile of ash, with the other four standing guard at the back of the clearing. His eyes had the hollow desolate look of a vampire who has just lost his mate.

The Amazonians were not preparing to fight us, that much was clear. Between the four of them they were carrying eight large containers full of blood. A few of the containers were paint buckets, likely left over from painting the new blood facility, but most of them were the large ceramic basins that were popular in this area among the humans and used for storing and transporting water. From the smell of it, I would guess it was synthetic blood, but there was host blood in the air too; lots of it.

"Please, you have to help us," Uiara pleaded, coming forward with her two paint buckets.

"The eggs have to be re-planted," Serena cried.

"They murdered Zafrina! That's against the law! They need to pay!" Fernando shouted with a grief-stricken air to his voice.

"She murdered the hosts!" Roberto retorted.

"She left us no choice!" Thiago exclaimed.

"We all agreed to let the Cullens settle our disputes. Why didn't you wait?!" Fernando wailed.

"What happened to the hosts?" I questioned.

"We agreed for intercoven disputes. This one was intracoven," Serena replied.

"We can handle our own outlaws," Roberto added.

"What we need help with is replanting," Thiago said.

"I'm going to kill you all for this!" Fernando shouted and lunged for Thiago, but Edward and Emmett were there to stop him.

"No one is killing anyone until we sort this out," I ordered.

"We should've burned you too, for trying to protect the murderer," Uiara said.

"Stop it!" I shouted and waited for silence before continuing. "Now Roberto, what happened to the hosts?"

"Zafrina killed them all. She went crazy and said the eggs were better off with Senna and Kachiri. Then she slit their throats and let them bleed out," Roberto answered.

"We tried to stop her and save the hosts, but it was too late, so we rescued the eggs and put them in these buckets," Thiago added.

"Wait, Zafrina killed all of the hosts? Hers and Fernando's too?" Edward asked.

"Yes! Even our own beautiful eggs! All gone," Fernando wailed.

This was a first. Not only had a vampire murdered another vampire's eggs, but she had also taken hers as well. It was no wonder why the Amazonians killed her and did not wait for us.

"Fernando, why did Zafrina do it?" I asked. Could it really be grief, like the others claimed?

"She missed her sisters. She couldn't bear the idea that there were going to be four little reminders of them running around soon," Fernando answered in between dry sobs.

"What about the other four? Why did she kill Huilen's eggs? Why her own?" I asked.

"She said they all had to go. She couldn't let any of them survive in this world without her sisters. She said the entire world was tainted and unfit for children," Serena answered.

"She only said that because you were torturing her!" Fernando accused.

"Did you torture Zafrina?" I asked sternly.

"No, we just tore off her limbs, before asking her head why she did it. Then we put the whole thing in the fire, same as any other death," Thiago answered.

"Carlisle, I think it is clear that Zafrina went mad," Edward said softly. He was clearly unsettled by the situation.

"Alright, here's my decision," I said. "Zafrina had the right to kill her host and only her host. For the murder of the other seven, I rule that you four were within your rights as her coven to destroy her."

"What about the eggs?" Uiara asked.

"Will you help us?" Serena pleaded.

"I'm not sure what can be done, but I will contact Allison and ask," I said, turning to make the call.

"Wait!" Fernando cried, so I turned back around and waited. "Kill me too! Please, please, please don't make me live in this world without Zafrina and my eggs."

"I'm sorry, but you haven't been accused of breaking the law. There is nothing I can do for you," I said sternly. I did not want to become the instrument of a suicide.

"Carlisle, may I honor his request?" Roberto asked.

"Not yet. Wait until I find out about the eggs," I answered.

"Hurry; this one is already cracking," Uiara said of one of her egg buckets.

I glanced inside and sure enough there appeared to be a hatching egg, only it was not nearly big enough. It looked more like an ostrich egg than a vampire egg, which corresponded with the fact that it was not even halfway through the parasitism. I nodded and left the clearing to call Allison. Emmett followed me, most likely to protect me, but the others all stayed.

Allison had bad news for us, "Sorry, but eggs can't be re-implanted, because they're only capable of forming the attachment once. It's similar to placental formation, where the placenta is only formed once in embryogenesis."

"So the eggs have to hatch now?" I asked.

"They'll hatch, but they're better off dead. They're only four decades into the parasitism, when it takes a minimum of seven to produce viable hatchlings. They'll be too small to survive properly; alive, but unable to grow and develop. They might not even be able to digest blood, so they'll be perpetually thirsty. It'll be torture," Allison answered.

"Well what should we do?"

"Burn them in the fire," she answered.

I ended the call and went back to the vampires waiting for me in the clearing. They were all saddened by the news of the fate of the eggs. Everyone there agreed that the eggs should be burned; even the one that was already hatching. It was hard for me to stand back and not try to help the tiny creature inside that cracked egg, but I knew it had to be done, so I stood back and watched. Fernando, on the other hand, decided to act.

"No, not that one: that's Zafrina's. I want it," Fernando said, jumping up and snatching the hatching egg.

"It's no use Fernando," I said calmly, walking towards him. I would have put my arm around him and comforted him, but he jerked back, not allowing me to make contact.

"But with Zafrina dead, her egg belongs to me, right?" Fernando asked and I nodded. "And that one," he pointed to a ceramic basin Serena carried, "that one is mine too and I want it. They're all I have left of my beloved Zafrina."

Serena handed over the basin that held Fernando's egg and he took it greedily. Then Uiara handed over the hatching egg that had belonged to Zafrina. He scooped the second one up and examined it in awe of the little fingers that were already prying their way out.

"Can we toss the other ones now, before cuckoo over there says he wants them too?" Roberto asked.

"Yes," I answered and six eggs went into the fire.

Fernando scooped up his first egg, his own egg, and proclaimed that it was hatching too; indeed it was already covered in cracks. We all watched in horror as first one and then the other egg hatched. The creatures that came out looked alien, with large heads and giant pitch black eyes. Their fingers and toes were webbed and their necks not yet strong enough to support their heads. They were each the size of one of Fernando's hands. They were wrinkled and hairless, but covered in a thick white film.

"They're in pain. This air hurts their lungs, the wind prickles their skin, and their throats burn of thirst," Edward said.

"Well help me feed them," Fernando said, sitting down besides one of the buckets of blood and cradling a hatchling in each arm.

No one moved to help him, so I did. I sat down and took one of the babies from him and examined it. I looked in the ears and nose and although they were small, they appeared functional. But then I examined the rear and noticed that there was a small nub sticking out, meaning that the embryonic tail had not yet receded fully. There were also no genitalia, likely because it was too early for them to form, and the legs were splayed too wide on the hips, like the fins of a fish. This hatchling was clearly not ready, but I tried anyway, because its father asked.

I opened the mouth and examined it. It was a mouth, but without teeth; no wonder these eggs had taken so long to hatch. Without teeth they had to claw their way out with just their hands. I turned then to the hands, placing my pinky finger inside the palm. It grabbed hold, making a weak fist around my finger. It was almost like holding a premature human baby, so I took my finger back, scooped up some blood, and dribbled it into the mouth. Only the baby did not know how to swallow and started choking. I turned it over and patted gently until all the blood dribbled out onto the ground.

"Possibly feeding tubes," Edward said, but otherwise kept quiet.

We could try feeding tubes. If the babies could not swallow, then a feeding tube was the only way to get blood into them. While I sat there and thought, Fernando tried to feed the other hatchling and met similar results. He turned it over and patted it and I noticed Thiago turn away and take off into the woods. I could hear movement while I worked on the first baby, but now that I looked up, all of the Amazonian vampires, except for Roberto, were gone.

"They couldn't stand to watch, but he still wants to take care of Fernando when he's ready," Edward said of Roberto.

I considered what I should do. Should I attempt to save the babies? Allison said it was impossible, but could I just give up, without trying? I was not that kind of a doctor. I should fight to the last.

I was just considering flying Fernando and the hatchlings back to Cullen Island and starting a blood drip on them when Edward's phone rang. The conversation only lasted a moment, with most of it occurring on the other end, because Edward made only the occasional murmur of assent, before hanging up.

"That was Alice. Now that the hybrid is gone she saw the babies. She said that they will not be able to digest the blood, even if you insert feeding tubes directly into their stomachs. They will get gaunter and weaker, but they won't be able to die. Their skin, unlike ours, is fragile and will break open, but they will not die. They will be in pain, but they cannot cry. Their throats will burn and they will forever feel tortured. They will never grow," Edward explained.

Fernando looked at the baby he held in his arms and then motioned for me to hand over the second one, which I did. He gently kissed them each on the forehead, before jumping into the fire that was still raging from the destruction of the first six eggs. He screamed in pain as he was burned alive, but he did not try to jump back out. He stayed put in that fire, with his legs turning to ash before his face, until all three of them were gone.

When it was over, we put out the fire, tracked down the remaining members of the Amazon coven, and told them what happened, before warning them against taking matters into their own hands again. Then we took off towards the airport and each boarded planes to our separate destinations. Edward and a few others went with me, back to Canada, but we did not talk again until we were alone. We were each too busy absorbing what had happened and the loss of our friends and all those eggs.

"She snapped," Edward finally said. "An accident happened and her host died. She was grieving and selfish and killed all of the other hosts without thinking. If she couldn't have hers, she couldn't let the others have theirs. She didn't want to be stuck raising all of those babies and not one of them was her egg. You would have had to sentence her to death for her crimes if the Amazonians had not taken justice into their own hands."

"I wish it weren't so," I said, but it was and I still had to inform Nahuel of the loss of Huilen's eggs.

Nahuel would be devastated without a doubt, because Huilen had raised him and protected him all of his life and now that she was gone and it was his turn to protect her children, he had left them with his half-sister on a different continent. His reasoning made sense, because those eggs were full vampires, while he was a hybrid living among shifters and humans. They were better off with their own kind and he had responsibilities to take care of with his own wife and children here in North America. He had had so much going on lately with the shifter stand-off that he just had not had the time to think about Huilen's eggs and now it was too late.

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><p>Author's Note: What do you think of Carlisle's leadership skills now that you've seen him in action? Please review!<p> 


	25. Book2 Masen ch7

Masen's POV:

My human, Robby, turned out to be pretty cool and I began to look forward to our little trips to the group home, which was a good thing because we went four times a week for the last five weeks of summer. We spent a lot of time talking and playing video games together and sometimes we even hung out with the other kids, but mostly we would climb up in our tree together.

Robby was smart for a human. He was not in the honors program, but he did well in all of his classes. He put a lot of his time into studying to get good grades and get a scholarship to University. "As a ward of the state, I hafta have at least a B average in high school or the government won't foot the bill for college," he told me.

"But we're only in junior high. We've got plenty of time to worry about that later," my cell translated.

"Yeah, but I'm preparing now. If I don't get good grades now, I won't get into the right classes in high school. It's the only way to get the government to pay," he replied.

"You don't have any inheritance or relatives at all?"

"Nope. My parents didn't leave me anything when they abandoned me and I never met any of my other family."

"What happens to you when you grow up? If the government doesn't pay for you to go to school and you can't get a job, then what are you supposed to do?"

"They automatically pay for everything until I'm eighteen. And since I'm defective, they'll pay for a lot of things after eighteen too. For the rest of my life, they'll pay for food, housing, and most importantly, medical bills. But they'll only pay for a Bachelor's degree for kids that have good grades. And you hafta get a Bachelor's degree before grad school," he replied.

To make it in today's society, you need a graduate degree. To be a manager at a fast food chain, you had to have a Master's in business and communication and all of the other jobs available were like that too. The manual laborers around here all had Bachelor's degrees and the people with only high school degrees were basically unemployable.

"You get a free-ride on the government, so you have to work, and the government doesn't have to pay to make you employable?"

"Yep. It's a lota money with little chance of return, because of my life expectancy. I might even die before I finish grad school," he said.

Robby was left with two choices: give up, as most defectives do, or study hard and make sure that he gets into all of the right high school classes and gets good enough grades in them to get to University. From there he could get first a Bachelor's degree and then a Graduate degree and at least have a chance of making something of himself. He would not have long to do it, because his life would practically be over by the time he finished school, but it was his only hope. Plus, he was always thinking about his desire to be normal and finishing school was the normal thing to do.

Then Robby started thinking about his problems with his history class. The biggest hurdle to Robby's plan was history. "Maybe I could tutor you and help you get into university?" I suggested. Tutoring was an acceptable mentor thing. "My dad told me that I need to pick something and start tutoring you," I signed. My dad had of course said nothing of the sort, but he was a good scape-goat to blame my ideas on; it was a lot better than signing, "I read your mind and I want to help you with history."

"Really? You could help me with history?" Robby asked excitedly and I nodded. "I hate history. It's the most boring subject in the world! I try to study, do my homework, and pay attention in class, but it's just sooo _boring!_"

"Can't stop yourself from daydreaming instead of focusing?" I teased.

"Well I was only ten when they gave us those placement tests!" he exclaimed. Ten year old humans are not very good at focusing anyway. "It's not my fault I failed and got put in the remedial history class last year, but I tried really hard last year. I studied my notes every day and did all of my homework; I even tried not to daydream too much!"

"What grade did you get last year?" I asked.

"I got an A. That's why I got on the pizza roll, even though I'm in the remedial class," he answered. "I hoped that I'd pass my placement test this time, but I got my results last week and it wasn't good." They called the honor roll the "pizza roll" at our school.

Robby started thinking about how I could help him with studying for history. "I have one more chance to pass the placement test- a retest during the first day of school. And if I study really hard and pass, I'll be moved into the normal class," he said.

Once he was in the normal class, he would only have to maintain a C in the subject to be able to stay at grade level. He needed a B average overall, but if he got a few As in his other subjects, it would cancel out and he would be fine. We started taking a history book up into the tree every day with us to study. We did not spend the whole time studying, so we still had plenty of time to talk about how things were going too.

The nice part about the tree was that the leaves would shade me from any errant rays of sun. We only ever went to the home on cloudy days and most of the days were cloudy anyway, but every once in a while a gap would burst open between the layers of clouds. Aunt Alice and Scryan both foresaw exactly when these gaps would open and close, so we were all well aware of the issue and planned around it. We would not go outside with our mentees if the time was getting close for a ray of sunshine to strike. If we were already outside, we would take cover until it passed. But with the leaves of our tree, all I had to do was stay put and let the leaves shield me from the photons.

There was only one day that my tree failed me and let through just the faintest sliver of sunlight. The light caught the back of my hand and made it shimmer, but it was not strong enough to cause all-out sparkling. Robby would not have even noticed if not for the bite mark on my hand from when Eliza had bit me as a baby. The mark was the same shade as the rest of me, but the skin was raised there and in the light, it stood out.

"What's that on your hand?" Robby asked.

"Just a scar from when Eliza bit me," my cell phone translated. The sun had gone back behind the clouds and I hoped that he would take my excuse and not question what he saw further, because at this point, he had not realized that my hand had been shimmering.

"She bit you!? I mean, I know you said she was mean and all, but she seriously bit you?" he asked and I nodded. "Like a wild animal?" I nodded again.

"We were babies and she had sharp teeth. She bit Jackson once too, but mostly she bit herself. She has scars all over her own hands from it." At least if he was focused on how awful Eliza was, he would not have time to worry about why my hand had shimmered.

"Wow! Did you have to get stitches?" Stitches had been made out of a type of synthetic glue for over a thousand years now, but they still called them stitches after the original material used in the wound-healing process. At least that is what Dad said.

"No, it wasn't all that bad. It healed really quickly; it just left a nasty scar," I said thinking back to how Carl had helped me heal faster.

I really miss Carl, because he was a great kid. He was a little less adventurous than the Whitlock kids, but he was more down to Earth. And he was more normal than Aiden; Aiden is such a suck-up that he can get annoying really quickly, but Carl was not like that. Angie was cool too and we used to play some awesome pranks together. The pranks on the Cullen estate will never be the same without her.

Everyone missed Angie and Carl, but no one more so than their parents. If we so much as mentioned their names around their parents, there would be tearless sobbing and uncontrollable never-ending grief. Grandpa Carlisle seemed to be okay and we all tipped-toed around Aunt Rosalie and Grandma Esme, but Uncle Emmett had it the worst, which was why Jackson tried leaving that comic book for him a few weeks ago. I could see in his mind that he read it, but he has yet to understand the meaning of it, so nothing has changed. Sure he participates in our outings and in the classroom, but his mental processing has been in an almost never ending mental fog of depression. It was so bad that it was an unspoken rule among us kids to never mention them in front of the adults, especially Uncle Emmett. The adults were always with us, so we tended not to talk about it at all.

The only person I could talk to about it was Robby. Uncle Emmett was always on the girl's side of the home, watching the girls interact with their mentees. And he stayed in the front and cleaned toilets most of the time, while Robby and I were always way out back in our tree, so he was almost always just out of earshot when I was here. Dad could still hear me, but I did not have to worry about my dad breaking down the way I did Uncle Emmett, so the home was the perfect place to talk to someone my own age about what had happened.

I could not tell Robby the truth about it, so instead I signed, "Aiden and Adriel had an older brother named Carl and Lily and Violet had an older sister named Angie and they both died." There were already enough twins in the family, so it was decided that if the subject ever came up with the humans, we would say that Carl and Angie were Allison and Jackson's age and not twins with Aiden and Lily.

"What happened to them?" Robby asked.

"Angie and Carl ran off into the wilderness and were killed by a pack of wolves before our parents could find them." It was not entirely true but it was close enough to give him a vague idea of what happened.

"But why'd they do it? Why'd they run away when they had parents who loved them?"

"Our parents, especially Carl and Angie's parents, were over protective. They never let us do anything. Angie and Carl just wanted to have an adventure," my cell translated.

"They must be even more over protective now that they lost their children," Robby replied.

"They're still over protective, which is part of the reason why we moved down here and away from the nature commune. After two of us being killed up there, our parents didn't feel safe and decided to move back to civilization. They hover now even more than they did before."

"That sucks."

"But you have to keep this a secret. You can't tell the other kids- promise?"

"Why?"

"Uncle Emmett, Angie's father, flips every time someone mentions her. I don't want him to overhear the other kids talking about her."

He thought about it for half a minute and then replied, "Yeah, okay, I promise."

After I told my story he told me one of his own. "Before living in this group home, I lived in another one for younger kids and one of those kids died. It was a little boy I knew. He was one of the abuse victims. He was taken away from his parents, but they were taking classes and trying to get him back. The judge let him go to his grandma's house for a visit on his birthday and the parents kidnapped him from there. I don't know what happened after that, but a few months later we went to a funeral for him."

I told Robby about the tragedy in my family and he told me about the one in his home and we both had someone to talk to. It was pretty nice, which is a phrase that also sums up my entire mentor experience. Sure I had to spend time with a human, but I actually ended up friends with him and my dad did not even have to force me into it too much.

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><p>Author's Note: Happy holidays and please review!<p> 


	26. Book3 Jasper ch8

Jasper's POV:

We kept pushing the wormhole closer to our final destination. We were in a cotton plantation and surrounded by row after row of cotton, which meant we were almost to where my younger self had gone, when the LED lights started flashing.

"Blood?" the twins signed.

I gave my typical response and signed, "No blood. Go home you."

The girls left and came back another day younger. We were almost there, so I kept pushing on the wormhole, knowing that the girls were no longer old enough to help.

"What do?" Kair signed, looking puzzled and confused.

"No destroy," Kare signed. They must have thought that I was destroying the worm hole, which meant that today was the first time they had ever seen me move the wormhole. And since they were oriented in the opposite direction in time as myself, that must mean that this plantation was the last place we were going before they rescued me.

I was so happy that a huge smile broke across my face and I leaned down and smothered both girls in kisses. "Old you?" I asked, finally letting the girls go. Neither one answered, shrugging instead. I repeated the question, but when they still did not answer, I answered it for them. "Zero you." I wanted to tell them the number of months they were, but I did not know that. All I knew was that they were some time before their first birthday.

"Zero me," Kair signed, copying me.

Kare tried to copy me as well, but she messed up the sign for zero. Messing it up was particularly difficult to do because it was simply making an "O" with the fingers of the right hand. Kare had only made her sign with her thumb and pointer finger, letting the other three stick out like how someone not fluent in sign language would sign, "Okay." Of course, "Okay," was signed differently in sign language, so in reality she was not even signing that.

I leaned down and fixed Kare's fingers, showing her how to make the sign properly and realizing that this must be the time when I taught my girls to tell me how old they were. I made them each repeat their ages to me a few dozen times and then went back to pushing the wormhole into position.

My twins were radiating confusion and surprise as the wormhole shifted and picked up speed. They began to get scared, so I stopped to explain. "Move worm hole me," I signed.

"Destroy?" Kare asked.

"No, only move," I answered.

They seemed satisfied with that answer, so I went back to work moving the hole into position. I only had a few hundred feet left to go before I arrived at my Grandfather's plantation, the Allen Plantation, just a few miles north of our ranch. My younger self had already dismounted Sugar and delivered his cargo of eggs and milk and was now playing with a mixed girl his age who worked in my Grandpa's kitchen. Her mother was one of the house servants here and also my father's mistress, so this girl was my half-sister and I knew it.

Her name was Keisha and she had very curly golden brown hair and expressive dark brown eyes. Her skin was a light brown color, only a few shades darker than mine, and she looked pale in comparison to her mother's medium brown. She was six months younger than me, which made her the closest to me in age out of all of my siblings. She was very pretty and smart too, but what I liked most about her was how fun she was to be around. She was the life of the party, so to speak, because she was full of life and energy. And most importantly, she just oozed happiness and joy every time she saw me. And like me, she was charismatic.

Needless to say, I came over to play with her as often as I could, even offering to deliver the milk and eggs as an excuse to stop by. This plantation had cows and chickens of its own, but they had so many slaves here that they could always use more, so my grandpa bought our extra off of us. Mam was all for me doing the delivering, because she did not like my pa stopping by. She knew what he was up to with Keisha's Mam; how could she not know when this was her father's plantation? Keisha's Mam had three more of my half-siblings in addition to Keisha and my Mam did not like it.

My grandpa knew everything that went on around here and he told it all to Mam, not that he minded what my pa was doing. Back in those days it was socially acceptable for men to cheat on their wives and not even the father of said wife cared, just as long as the woman was being taken care of properly. Plus my pa's activities made my grandfather richer, because he now owned my four half-siblings, who were legally his slaves. Keisha's mother was not married, so she would not have produced children without Pa, and since their children were of a lighter skin tone, they were more valuable than the average slave. The light skinned ones could work in the house, so they sold for more.

And most importantly, Keisha's Mam, Aunt Alicia, was actually my Mam's half-sister, because my grandfather had done the same as my pa and cheated on Grandmother Allen with one of his slaves. Well technically he did not cheat on Grandma Allen, because she was dead before he took up with Keisha's grandmother, but he never married Grandma Dinah, so I still did not think it was right. Grandma Dinah ran the house and slept in his bed, but they were not married and their children were his house slaves. That was how things were back then.

There were rumors about masters setting slaves free in the North and there were even some free Negros in town that could be hired. The men were used as extra farm hands during harvesting and the women were extra maids during a large celebration. But free Negros were not the norm, they did not have any rights, and they were not safe from the Whites. Anyone could accuse them of anything and have them executed for the color of their skin. At least slaves could not be murdered without their owner's consent and Grandpa was not about to consent. With Grandpa in charge, his children and grandchildren were safe, sheltered, and protected as slaves. As a human, I never even thought twice about it, because that was just how it was.

Grandpa had bought wives for his black sons, Tom and Jim, and put them in charge of his other slaves, running the plantation. My Uncle Tom was even in charge of the family finances, because my mam was the only surviving child from his marriage and Grandpa was too old now to do most of the running of the family business. Uncle Jim was in charge of scheduling and he was the one that would bring slaves over to our ranch to help us out when the cotton fields did not need them.

Grandpa did not want to marry off Aunt Alicia, because women slaves were sold to the owners of their husbands. He wanted to keep his children in his house so that he could ensure they were treated properly. The other slaves were whipped and beaten, but my aunt and uncles never were, because Grandpa treated them just as well as he did my mam. So Grandpa kept Aunt Alicia in his house and let her procreate with his son-in-law, because if Pa was good enough for Mam, then he was good enough for his other daughter too. I did not think it was right that Aunt Alicia was not allowed to marry and was stuck with just occasional visits from Pa. And it was rather disgusting if you ask me, but no one asked me.

But whatever was going on with the grownups, Keisha and I were oblivious and not involved; instead we were innocently playing tag out on the lawn. She was almost as tall as me and with those long legs of hers, she ran just as fast. We must have been about twelve at the time, judging by our height and the fact that we were still playing tag. When we were eleven, Keisha was taller than me, but I passed her up when I was twelve. And when we were thirteen, we stopped playing tag and started playing other games.

Keisha and I grew up together and we grew closer during puberty, because we shared something else in common: we both liked to go out to the cabins behind the cotton fields and spy on the slaves. There were two slave children our age and we were not supposed to play with them, but Keisha and I did anyway. The boy's name was Brett and the girl was MaryLynn. Keisha had a crush on Brett, while I had a huge crush on MaryLynn.

MaryLynn was a foot shorter than me with ebony colored skin that made her bright white smile pop and light up her face. Her dark brown eyes twinkled in the moonlight and her dark brown hair was worn in an elegant afro. I loved girls with short hair and I still do. And she was forbidden, which made me want her more. And just as MaryLynn was forbidden to me, Brett was forbidden to Keisha and she was just as rebellious as me.

We used to sneak out at night, after Uncle Jim and Uncle Tom had gone home to their cabins, and convince MaryLynn and Brett to follow us out to the local swimming hole. The four of us would go skinny dipping and talk and laugh and just have fun being kids. Back when I was thirteen I thought MaryLynn was the perfect girl for me and when I was fourteen, I thought I was going to marry her when I grew up. When I was fifteen, we started fooling around. And when I was sixteen we lost our virginities to each other and my grandfather had her hanged.

Keisha and I had managed to keep our relationships with Brett and MaryLynn a complete secret for a long time, but Keisha did everything I did, only she and Brett did it first. They had sex a year before we did, Keisha got pregnant, and my grandfather was livid. Grandpa forced Keisha to tell him who the father was, but she would not reveal the truth; instead she lied and said it was me. Grandpa, for whatever sick reason, liked that idea and let her keep the baby.

"Keisha! What're ya thinkin'? Once that baby's born they're gonna know it's not mine," I said as soon as we were alone for the first time since she told Grandpa.

"Sorry, but I couldn't think of anythin' else ta say. You know Grandpa, he'd freak if he found out I was with a Negro boy. You're the only white boy who talks to me," she replied.

"But I'm your brother, from Pa, and your cousin from our Mams. That's gross," I complained.

"Yeah, but this way neither of us'll get in trouble."

"But what 'bout when it's born and doesn't look like me?"

"Negro kids don't look like the white parent, just look at my Mam; she only looks like Grandma Dinah. And look at me, I look more like my Mam than I do like our Pa. So if the baby don't look white, they won't even notice. Besides, I'm gonna name him Jasper Junior if he's a boy and Jasmine if she's a girl; that'll distract the grownups."

I went along with it, because Keisha wanted me to and I was worried that Grandpa Allen might hurt her or the baby if he knew the truth, but my parents were not nearly as happy about it as Grandpa was. My pa was mad, because Keisha was my sister and the supposed relationship was incest, and my Mam and brother Joseph were mad because Keisha was a Negro. My chances of marrying a white woman suddenly were not looking too good now that everyone thought I had an illegitimate Negro baby.

I was not concerned about not being able to marry a white woman anyway, because I wanted to marry MaryLynn. MaryLynn knew that I was not the father of Keisha's baby and she also thought that it was very noble of me to help my sister out like that, so my chances of marrying her were just as good as ever. Well they were never good, because Texas law stated that Whites could not marry Negros, but somehow that had not sunk in for me. I knew that she was forbidden and that we had to hide our relationship and sneak around, but I thought that that was just because we were kids and that my mother did not like slaves; I had no idea that our relationship was as forbidden as it was. It was not until my father and brother took me aside and explained things to me that I understood.

"Where've you been all night?" Pa asked me one night when I returned from the Allen plantation.

I had just finished having sex with MaryLynn and I still smelled of it, but before that I had been with Keisha. I made my appearance with Grandpa Allen and Grandma Dinah and Aunt Alicia, so that they would think I was the doting father to be. I made a show of rubbing her belly and kissing her on the cheek. I even told Aunt Alicia that I wanted to move in and help with the baby, because I planned on supporting my son or daughter. Keisha's baby might not have been mine, but she was my favorite sister and I wanted to help her out. Plus, if I lived with her, I would be closer to MaryLynn.

"At the plantation with Keisha," I said jumping off of Sugar and putting her away in the barn. Joseph and my father followed after me.

"That's the problem. Elijah was over there and he came home tellin' us all 'bout your little visit," Joseph sneered.

"I don't understand," I replied, walking over to the other side of the barn, with the cows. I was going to check on them before going to bed for the night.

"You're over there playing house with that girl," Pa said angrily.

"What do ya mean, that girl? She's your daughter!" I replied, my own anger getting the best of me. I still did not understand what their problem was.

"And that makes her ya sister. I can't believe I'm even havin' this conversation," Pa said.

"The point's that your little Negro girl's with child now and that looks bad for all of us, but what's worse's that you're goin' 'round actin' like you're gonna marry her or some'in!" Joseph yelled.

"So? I thought I was supposed to act like that," I insisted.

"Jasper, you can't marry a Negro, it's against the law," Pa told me, but I did not want to believe him, even though I knew he was being truthful. I could tell when someone was being dishonest and he was not.

"No, Pastor Morris always says that if we lay with a girl and get her with child that we've gotta get married," I said, clinging to the possibility that MaryLynn and I would be able to get married someday.

"He means of your own race. It's illegal to marry a Negro and it ain't much better to have a baby with one," Joseph said.

"But what about Pa and Grandpa? No one ever said nothin' about 'em havin' Negro babies," I replied.

"But neither of us tried to marry a Negro and we were both married to white women first. If you do it that way, no one cares. But you're doin' it all backwards boy," Pa said.

"Sorry, but what am I supposed to do now?" I asked, trying to think of a way to salvage the situation. Even if I could not be with MaryLynn out in the open, I might still be able to find a way for us to be together.

"You've got to stop seeing Keisha. I don't wanna hear no more reports of you goin' over there and playin' house. People will forget 'bout it and we can find you a wife from another city," Pa said.

"And wash off your cock to get the Negro off," Joseph added, making absolutely no sense whatsoever, but that was typical for him, so I did not think much of it.

"But what about my baby?"

"That ain't your baby no more; it belongs to Grandpa Allen, same as Keisha," Pa said.

"And what about getting laid," I asked, suddenly full of cockiness. Pa had told me it was important to bed as many girls as possible as much as I could when he told me about the birds and the bees, so he was contradicting himself.

"Find a white girl to lay with," Pa answered.

"But I like 'em dark," I said, trying to make him angry, because I was heartbroken over the idea that I would not be able to see MaryLynn and Keisha again and I wanted him to feel some of my pain.

"That's enough boy! Now hold your tongue and stop seeing that girl," Pa replied tersely.

"And what if I refuse?" I asked.

"Then we'll make'ya," Joseph said making a fist and slamming it into his open palm, to demonstrate how he planned on making me.

I did not back down, so Pa let Joseph punch me a few times to drive their point through my thick skull. And from then on, everyone at the ranch watched my every move. I was no longer allowed to make deliveries to the plantation, nor was I allowed social visits and Keisha was not allowed over to our house either. And since I could not go to the plantation, I could not see MaryLynn.

Mam and Pa were fighting with Grandpa Allen and Aunt Alicia, so Keisha and I were stuck in the middle and that was how things stayed until the baby was born. She was a little girl and as promised, Keisha named her Jasmine after me. But Jasmine was born the color of mahogany and so everyone knew we had lied and that I was not the father; the baby was just too dark for it to be otherwise. Grandpa sent Tom and Jim out to question the slaves and they did not come back until they knew about both Brett and MaryLynn. Grandpa Allen hanged them at dawn the next day.

Normally I can make people see things my way, but there was a limit to my powers back when I was human and I just could not save MaryLynn. I did not even know that Jasmine had been born or that Grandpa Allen had found out about MaryLynn until it was too late and my first girlfriend was hanging from her noose. Grandpa Allen came to our ranch first thing in the morning and apologized to my parents. Then he told them what had happened and requested that I be allowed to come back to the plantation to view the corpse, so that I would be scared straight.

My parents agreed, even though Keisha and the baby were there crying over Brett's body. That was the first and only time I ever saw little Jasmine and I was too busy grieving over MaryLynn to notice my niece. I do not even know what happened to my sister and her baby, because I was so furious about the whole thing that I ran away the first chance I got. It hurt so bad that this was the one human memory I could not forget, even though I never allowed myself to think about it.

I wish I had not gone so far back into the past or that I could travel to the future, because I really wanted to see Keisha and Jasmine one last time. I would go back and save them from life in the South if I could, because I loved them so much. I have a new family now, but I still miss my old family. I will have to ask Jackson to look and see if his cousin turned out alright when I get back to my proper time. I would have asked him to look before, but I had forced Jasmine and Keisha out of my mind so thoroughly that I had not thought to have Jackson look for them until just now when I saw Keisha.

Mam, Pa, and my older siblings, Lidia and Joseph, watched me like a hawk after MaryLynn died, because they did not want me going to see little Jasmine or Keisha, even though they now knew that the baby was not mine. The fact that I had been sleeping with MaryLynn, a full blooded Negro, was far worse than diddling my sister, who was only a quarter Negro. Everyone was mad at me and they were worried that if left to my own devices, I would come back home with another slave girlfriend.

But even still, I tried to sneak out of the house to see my sister, because she was the only one who understood what I was going through; she was going through the same thing with the loss of Brett, only she had a baby to take care of, so her situation was worse. But whenever I tried to go to the plantation, Pa and Joseph would hold me down and throw punches until I no longer wanted to see my sister. I was so much smaller than them that I could not do much about it, so I vowed to teach myself to fight. I was already bulking up by the time the war started. I even got a few punches in of my own the last time Joseph beat me up.

The first chance I had to run away from my messed up family was when the civil war broke out and my pa and brother volunteered to fight, and I did not even think twice about running after them and signing up myself. It is rather ironic that I went off to war to fight for a country that wanted to continue the very practices that caused me to run away in the first place and that I was following after the very people who tormented me, but I was sixteen at the time and I did not see any other options regarding where to run. Plus, I wanted to be a war hero and make a name for myself, so the cavalry suited me perfectly. At least I had enough sense to head to a different recruitment camp than they had gone to, or I probably would never have gotten away from those people.


	27. Book1 Carlisle ch11

Carlisle POV:

Time went on. The oldest and most respected of the tribal elders of both the Iroquois and the Navajo died. The next oldest of the elders took their place and the old Chiefs gave up shifting to take their place among the elders. New young shifters with open minds took their places as Chiefs and the tribes became more open to the suggestions they received from the Quileutes. In fact, the Quileutes began to wear them down and make them question their belief that the hybrids were a threat at all. Jacob and the other Quileutes were slowly but surely able to bring them over to their side. Eventually they got to the point where Jacob felt safe showing Link off to the Navajo Chief and since Link does not even drink animal blood and prefers human food, the Chief agreed that he was harmless and that the shifter vampire hybrids should be allowed to live.

The Iroquois leader took a bit more convincing, but after half a century of disagreement, he was finally forced to concede that the hybrids were harmless. And so Nessie and the other hybrids once again moved back to La Push and I went back to work planning the first vampire congress. I never stopped planning it and going on trips to talk with the other coven leaders about it, but with the threat of a shifter war, I had put the first congressional meeting on hold indefinitely. Now it was back on, but there was still a lot of work to do.

Most importantly, we needed a congress for the new government. Eventually we would hold open elections for congress positions, but for now, we were asking for the head of each coven of four or more to come. And everyone who was not in a coven of four or more and wanted to come, we were asking that they put their name in a lottery. Not everyone who we invited wanted to come, so we were going to pull however many names from the lottery to get our total number up to fifty.

I did not want to simply send out invitations to join congress or make an announcement that applications were welcome, because I wanted to do this right. I took Edward and Alice with me and the three of us went to every single coven of vampires in the world and tracked down every single nomad. We made the announcements in person and that took a lot of time. And we all had children at home waiting for us, so we tried to make our forays away from the island as short as possible to limit the amount of time we spent away from our kids.

And as always, my main mission of establishing the first congress was continuously interrupted by vampiric disputes, which were becoming increasingly egg centric, like when Imogen of the Brisbane coven showed up requesting genetic testing. She had been in a coven of three with her mate Hayden and another female named Skylie, but when all three of them disgorged eggs the same week, Imogen got suspicious and came to us for help. Skylie denied cheating with Hayden and claimed it was a local nomad, Patrick, who had fathered her egg.

We brought all four of them and their eggs to Cullen Island so that Allison could perform genetic testing. It took her some time, but she was able to develop a procedure for the isolation of vampiric cells both from adults and from eggs. Imogen's egg belonged to her and Hayden, as expected and also as she expected, Skylie was proved a cheat. Hayden was the father of Skylie's egg and she was the mother of his. But she was also the mother of Patrick's egg, only Patrick was not the father of his own egg. Hayden was the father of Patrick's egg, proving that gametes could be picked up and implanted into any vampire, regardless of whether or not he or she is the biological parent.

Patrick had been about to implant his egg before we called him in for genetic testing, but once he got the results, he decided to abort. Normally I am against abortion, but in his case, I thought it was understandable since he turned out not to be the father of his own egg. Skylie too destroyed her egg, because she was really in love with Patrick and did not want Hayden's child. Hayden in return did not want Skylie's child, so he aborted his egg as well. Imogen broke up with Hayden and was about to make it even by destroying her egg, but Hayden asked for it and she let him adopt it. He really was in love with her, despite his affair with Skylie, and now that Imogen had left him, that egg was all he had left of her, so he decided to adopt and implant it.

Two mated couples were broken up over the results of the genetic testing of their eggs and one man was left to be a single father to the egg he adopted from his ex-mate, and that was only the most extreme example of the egg-related drama I had to deal with as acting ruler. Another example that hit closer to home was a dispute between Jideofor and his mate Malik. Jideofor was good friends with Emmett and Rosalie and was the creator of Uwa, Stefan's mate. He, like the rest of vampiredom, wanted an egg, but unfortunately, since Malik was also male, they were unable to create one together.

Jideofor's solution caused quite the uproar with Malik. Malik was a relatively young vampire and it did not bother him so much that he and his mate were unable to conceive eggs, but Jideofor was thirteen hundred years old and very much wanting to be a father already and to do that, he planned on obtaining an egg donor. He wanted to mix his sperm with the unfertilized eggs of a female vampire and swallow. He was even willing to mix a sample from his mate in there, so that there would be an equal chance of them each being the father. There was not even a need for sex with the donor, so he thought it was a wonderful idea.

Malik, on the other hand, thought the idea sounded disgusting and repulsive. He did not want a child from a random stranger and he did not like the idea that the child would only contain the genetic material from one of them. Jideofor had come from Classic human stalk, while Malik had been Sudanese, so it would be blatantly obvious which one of them was the father, because the child would either be one race or the other. So Malik did not want to do it and he did not want Jideofor to do it either, therefor the bickering pair turned up on our doorstep asking me to settle their dispute.

My first thought was to turn the couple away and tell them to sort this out themselves, but Edward pointed out that it could easily turn into a legal issue if Jideofor went through with it. What if he kissed his mate and transferred fertilized embryos and Malik ended up with an egg he did not want? What if somehow Jideofor ended up in para with Malik's baby, like with what had happened with the Brisbane coven? What if Malik tried to stop Jideofor? These were all questions I did not have the answer to.

I asked Alice, but she said she could not see. Scryan also could not see, but he said he had a feeling it would all work out in the end. Jasper said not to get involved until one of them had broken a clearly definable law. But it was Rosalie who came up with the solution Jideofor and Malik went with.

"If you don't like what your mate is doing, then break up," Rosalie said.

Jideofor, having known Rosalie and Emmett for almost his entire existence, decided to take this advice and broke up with Malik. Last I heard, he was still looking for a fertile female to give him an egg donation. Rosalie and a few other females were considering it. There was a female of Classic origins in the Nigerian coven and Jideofor had met a female of Sudanese heritage that was also willing. But Rosalie was currently with egg, as was the Nigerian, and so neither of them would be able to donate unfertilized eggs for years. The Sudanese female vampire was in a position where she could produce viable oocytes anytime she wanted, but her mate was against it and she was friends with Malik too. So although Jideofor's plans did not fall right into place, there was still hope for the future, especially because Scryan still says everything will work out in the end.

With all of the drama, Fifty-five years passed before we finished our mission to contact every vampire in the world and then another five before we heard back from every coven with news of whether or not they would come. Once we knew how many were coming we drew the remaining names from the lottery and waited to hear back from them. And then some of the winners had to decline because they now had eggs to look after and we had to draw more names and send out more announcements and wait to hear back again.

In the end it was seventy three years after the end of the Cullen Volturi War before we were ready to move south to Manitoba Canada. Manitoba was perfect, because it was not too far from Cullen Island. Any vampire could make the journey in only a few hours. And Manitoba was in the belt of what is considered prime nomad land and the center of the vampire population. The band encircled the globe and was not particularly thick in Manitoba, but it was thick enough. Besides, the largest density of vampires corresponded to large human cities in the north, and we did not want too many humans around, so large cities were out and Manitoba was perfect.

We wanted to stay in Canada instead of going back to America, because the United States has been a second world country ever since the last revolution, while Canada was still clinging on to first world country status, but barely. We had become accustomed to a certain way of life and our wealth would stand out like a sore thumb in a poor country like America. We would still be considered wealthy by Canadian standards, but at least we would not stand out so much.

Before we left for Manitoba, Jasper came to me again with another suggestion.

"We've been keeping the children here for their protection from the Volturi, but now that we're moving south, we really need to expose them to humans more and vampire society needs to see them out in the open. They need to see that they're real and healthy and wonderful and they need to know that they aren't a threat. The easiest way to do that is to show them interacting with humans. I think it's time to enroll the kids in human school," he said.

"But they look so young," I protested. The kids had already finished learning everything we could teach them and were at the post-Bachelorette level in a dozen subjects. They could get graduate degrees with the humans, but they were pre-teens and looked far too young for any of that.

"They'll go to junior high. It's not about academic learning, but learning proper human interaction and how to control their thirst. I'd like to bring some humans in here to test them with."

The children had rarely even seen regular humans. They had all seen helicopter pilots from a distance, but have never gotten close enough to truly test their control, so that did not count. Allison, Jackson, and Eliza had all lived in human territory for a short period of time after their births, but that was so long ago and they were just babies then. They never had any up close and personal contact with a human who was not a host. There was no reason to think that the children would be able to resist human blood or be able to blend in with humans their age.

My boys had some experience being around hosts, because of Kenwei and Kadia, and there were enough hosts on the island that all of the children had been exposed to them at one point or another, so we were confident that no harm would come to the hosts. But hosts do not smell appetizing like regular humans do and so we would still have to test them against regular humans before returning to human society.

"And you'll stop them if they get too close?" I asked, concerned for the human test subjects.

"No, I want to really test them and see if they can stop themselves. They're more than old enough to exhibit self-control, but the test subjects will see too much and will have to be destroyed. I'll use serial killers from death row. They won't be missed," he said cool and calculating.

I thought about it for several minutes, but in the end I realized that this would have to come sooner or later and Jasper was right, because if one of the children slipped, the human would see too much and have to be destroyed, so it was best to use humans that would die either way.

"Alright, let's do it," I conceded against my better judgment. I did not like the idea of killing human test subjects, even if they were monsters, but it was more important that our children learn not to harm innocent humans than to keep tainted blood off of our hands.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Aloha! There is only one more Carlisle chapter left. In other news, I just got back from 5 weeks vacation in California and 1 week in Hawaii. Mahalo for all the reviews!<p> 


	28. Book2 Masen ch8

Masen's POV:

On the last Friday before the start of school we had a pizza party to celebrate how well the mentor experience turned out. My dad bought pizza for the entire group home and both sides had parties. Pizza was normally not allowed because it was not healthy enough, but my dad ordered special pizza made out of real food. Apparently there was a very expensive pizza restaurant that catered to the all-natural crowd and still made pizza out of wheat dough, tomato based sauce, and a product derived from the secretions of a lactating goat, just like it was done in the olden days. And as long as Dad only ordered the low-fat goat product variety, the home would let him serve it to the kids here.

The cafeteria area, where the pizza was, was way too crowded with too many pulsating heart beats, so I grabbed Robby's hand and led him out back to sit on the grass. Jackson, Scryan, Aiden, and Adriel followed us out with their mentees Josh, Draco, Brent, and Kyle. We had a party of our own and we did not even have to eat pizza, because all of our mentees knew that we hated the stuff.

"Will you all be coming back to visit us once school starts?" Kyle, Adriel's mentee, asked.

Kyle was only eleven, but he had some pretty intense thoughts sometimes. He was one of the kids that were taken away from their parents because of neglect. Both his parents worked, so they left him at home with a robot sitter all day and they were too busy to deal with him when they came home, so they left him with the robot then too. Robot sitters do an okay job of watching your kid and preventing possible injuries, but they are only approved for short term use; most parents leave their kids for only two or three hours at a time, not for days and weeks on end.

Robot sitters were no substitute for human interaction and kids who were left with them too long would become antisocial, stop talking, and even become depressed. Kyle's teacher realized that he was a robot kid when his parents took him to Kindergarten for the first time. Starting school with Kindergarten and skipping the two years of free preschool that were offered by the state was unusual, so Kyle had already been red-flagged before the teacher ever even met him.

Kyle's parents thought leaving the robot on the preschool setting during the day was good enough and they did not want to deal with the hassle of taking him to school every day, so he had not gone to preschool. And by the time he was old enough for Kindergarten, he had already been left with the robot for five years with barely any human interaction. He had RSS, Robot Sitting Syndrome, so bad that he curled himself into a ball and refused to speak when his Kindergarten teacher tried to question him about his home preschooling.

The kindergarten teacher called the police, who came immediately and took Kyle to the RSS ward of the local pediatric psychiatric hospital. He spent two years in intense treatment with actual humans, because robots are not allowed in the RSS ward, and then he was moved to a group home. He talks now and seems mostly normal on the outside, but his thought patterns were way off.

Kyle seemed to think in binary and everything was a string of zeros and ones. He was also extremely analytical and logical and could not handle spontaneity at all. He needed to know what was going to happen at least a week in advance so that he could plan for all eventualities. Adriel was very spontaneous, so Mrs. Smith thought that they were a good match for each other, because Kyle could learn to be more spontaneous from Adriel and Adriel could learn to be more methodical from Kyle.

"Not often. We might come back like once a month," Adriel answered. "But we're in the same grade, so we can see each other every day at school."

"Are you still going to be friends with me at school?" Kyle asked, unsure if we would willingly damage our social status by associating with kids from the group. His speech was still stiff like a robot's.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Adriel asked.

"You're really cool; you could make friends with the other cool kids and become popular," Kyle replied.

"I don't have any other male friends in my grade, because we're new here. I certainly don't expect to be popular and you're plenty cool yourself," Adriel replied.

"Will you guys still talk to us once we're in school?" Aiden asked, turning the question around on them. "We don't wanna show up and not have any friends."

All of the Classics, except for Aiden's, agreed. Aiden was paired with Brent, who remained silent and thought, 'Only if I have to; I'd rather keep to myself.'

Brent was one of the many humans here who were abused before being taken away from their parents. He showed up to school with one too many bruises from his father's drunken rages and his teacher decided to start an investigation. Brent had two older brothers, Blare and Blake, and their parents had always said that the bruises were from the three boys wrestling and fighting. But when questioned by the school, Blare and Blake did not remember that they had supposedly beat Brent up the night before. Social services were called, an investigation began, and now Blare, Blake, and Brent all live here.

Brent was the most messed up out of our humans, at least over here on the boy's side, if not out of all of them. He had serious mental health issues from all the years of abuse, including frequent mood swings. He would be happy that we got pizza one minute, mad that it was cheese the next, and then he would be sullen because he did not think he was good enough to hang out with us, and that was on a good day. On a bad day, he would have thoughts of suicide, although he was not ready to attempt anything yet.

Aiden was a good match for Brent, because he calmed his mentee down and evened out his emotions, but Brent was the type of human that Aunt Alice had warned us about. His past was unpleasant and Jackson had seen several horrible visions to prove it. His future was disturbing and Scryan had seen a suicide or three. And his memories were so bad that Eliza still was not used to the onslaught of being around him, even after a month of visiting here.

'Aiden, tell Brent we mean him too. His thoughts are depressing again,' I projected, but only to the vampires. If Brent's memories bothered Eliza, then I was all for keeping him around more.

'Why'd you have to go and project that Masen?' Jackson thought.

'We don't want Brent around; his suicidal tendencies are sickening,' Scryan thought at me.

"Brent, that means you too," Aiden said, not having heard Jackson or Scryan's inner grumbling.

"Yeah Brent," Adriel agree and the other humans and I nodded.

"Come on Brent, you have to hang with us this year. We group kids gotta stick together," Robby said.

"Fine, whatever," Brent said, thinking, 'Maybe they really do like me.'

I shared Brent's thoughts with Aiden, who replied, "Brent, I have to say I thought this mentard stuff was gonna majorly blow, but you're pretty cool. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I had a lot of fun here this summer, just don't tell my uncles. Kay?" Brent had come up with the word mentard to both make fun of the mentee mentor relationship and shorten its name. Nobody ever said depressed kids could not be funny too.

"Al'ight man," Brent replied putting his fist out to be bumped and Aiden bumped it.

It was already getting close to the time I had to leave and I wanted to say farewell to Robby privately, so I stood up and walked to our tree. He followed after me, just like I knew he would, and we climbed the tree in silence. When we got to our spot, I turned on my translator program.

"I'm really glad I got to know you," my translator said.

"Me too," Robby replied.

"I want you to come over to my house sometime after school. My dad said it's alright with him; we just have to get permission from your home."

"That'd be way cool!" he replied thinking about all of the cool video games I told him about that I have at home.

"But I still have speech therapy every afternoon, so you can only come over on days when it's canceled."

"When will it be canceled?" he asked hopefully.

"Whenever my therapist gets sick or goes on vacation. It's bound to happen sometime." I smiled.

"Awesome! I'll get Mr. Williamson to approve me for visits to your house so I can come over whenever you're free. Are the others coming too?"

"My dad said that only the mentees that are defectives are allowed over, because of Brandon's twin sister. She'll probably freak with whoever we bring over, but she is even worse with people who have emotional problems." The defectives tend to be the more emotionally stable kids when compared to the abused and neglected ones.

"Brandon has a twin too? How is it that there are three sets of twins and two belong to the same family?"

"Eliza and I happened by chance, but Jackson and Brandon's parents did it on purpose. They had to use fertility meds to get pregnant. Each pregnancy was multiplies and they reduced them down to twins, because they wanted two at a time."

"Why would anyone want two sets of twins in a row?" Robby wondered out loud.

"Three. They have three sets of twins in a row. There is another set of twin girls after Brandon and Ashley."

Now that Kair and Kare were going to school with us, our human mentees would have to be aware of them, because it would not do for two more of us to materialize out of thin air. Scryan and Jackson had already mentioned to their mentees that they had two little sisters who were at home with Scryan's twin, but I had never found reason to mention it to Robby before today.

"Wow, six kids must drive your aunt and uncle crazy," he said thinking that they must have a lot of sitter bots in their house. He shuddered at the thought, thinking about Kyle's story.

"Yes and they don't even have a sitter robot. That's why Uncle Jasper always has to stay home and take care of his kids."

"How long do you have until you have to leave?" he asked me, hoping to show me off to some of the older, cooler kids. Everyone was envious of us and if this was the last time we would be here, he wanted it known that he was one of the lucky mentees. There were a lot of other kids with mentors, but because of our wealth, everyone wanted one of the Cullen kids as their mentor.

"Half an hour. Do you want to go back to the party?" I was not opposed to doing Robby a favor and helping him look cool in front of his friends.

"Yeah. Could we?"

I nodded and slowly climbed down the tree. He followed me back into the party and grabbed another slice of pizza, before leading me around the room and introducing me to all of the other boys. He had introduced me to his friends before, but that only amounted to the other eight boys who were in his year. There were four boy's bedrooms here and each had three triple decker bunk beds, for a total of nine boys in each room. All the boys in the same room were the same age, so this home held four years' worth of boys. There were four years' worth of girls on the other side.

Robby was friends with all of the boys in his room, so now he was mostly introducing me to boys in other rooms. There was one room of younger boys Kyle's age and another room for boys Josh's age; Josh was Jackson's mentee. Jackson looked to be a year older than us, so he was in the next grade up and got an appropriately aged mentee. And then there was one last room full of boys two years older than Robby and these were the kids he really wanted to impress; these boys were freshmen in high school.

Robby was introducing me to a fourteen year old boy named Jerry when I first noticed another boy thinking about him. The other boy was looking at Jerry and trying to make sure he stayed out of his line of sight at all times. They were in the same room and Jerry would bother and threatened him after lights out and probably would do it during the day too, which was why he was trying to remain unseen. He had not been to the party earlier, having hid out in the game room. But since the party was almost over, he had been hoping Jerry would have cleared out and that it would be safe to get some pizza. Now that he knew he was wrong, he was grabbing pizza and trying to escape without being seen.

My dad was nearby, cleaning up used cups and plates from the party, so I projected, 'Dad, did you know that Jerry hurts other boys?'

'There are many children in here that bully other kids; that is one of the many things that bother Jackson, Scryan, and Eliza. I'm surprised this is the first time you're noticing,' Dad thought in reply.

'Well I'm only here half as long as the others and I always spend all of my time outside with Robby. Are you really just going to let the bullying continue?'

'No, I have already passed along information regarding several other children, many of whom are worse than Jerry. Two were kicked out of this home before Eliza would come in. But Jerry was not as bad as the others so he was let off with a warning.'

'Well it's not working.'

'I will tell Mrs. Smith that Jerry is bothering the other children again. It may not solve the problem though.'

'Will she get suspicious that you know?'

'No, I tell her that you kids tell me these things and that your mentees tell them to you.'

'Okay.'

'Your mom's here.'

'I don't hear her.'

'I don't either, but I heard her car just now,' he thought and sure enough I heard my mom's mind unshield seconds later. 'You better go.'

'See you at home,' I projected before going to find Robby. I looked him in the eyes and waved, so that he would know that I was leaving.

"See you in class Masen," he said extending his hand. I shook his hand and then went out to meet my mom and go to speech therapy.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Jasper will be getting out of that wormhole next chapter! Woohoo! Reviews please?<p> 


	29. Book3 Jasper ch9

Jasper's POV:

The twins and I spent the rest of our time together exploring the plantation as much as we could without moving the wormhole, because it was too difficult for me to move it by myself. Luckily we had a good vantage point from the front lawn outside the main house and almost everyone and everything passed by. I showed the girls the animals and the people, especially my grandfather and half-siblings, as well as the slaves. We were limited to whoever happened to be on that lawn, so they never saw most of the slaves, but my MaryLynn did pass by once. She was a beautiful little girl even then.

"First girlfriend me," I told my girls, pointing at MaryLynn, but they did not understand me; they were too young now and did not know enough sign language for that.

My younger self came back almost every day and we would watch him play on that lawn with Keisha as the girls grew progressively younger. One day I noticed a sticky substance on Kair's hands and when I licked it, I realized that it was celery juice. Celery juice is the most vile thing in existence and Edward had discovered that it stopped Eliza from biting her hands if he coated them in the stuff. And so I realized that my girls were now into their first few months of life, because it was common for newborns to bite their hands on accident.

When I inspected Kare, she also had celery juice on her hands and both girls had on hats and matching booties, something Alice would insist on for the first few months, depending on how adept the children were at removing or shredding them. Jackson had tolerated the booties and hats the longest, letting Alice dress him like that for three solid months, while Scryan had tried to eat his booties during his very first day of life. No one wanted to have to pump his stomach, so excess clothing was not utilized.

Just as I was thinking about the booties and hats, Kare ripped her hat off of her head and Kair started to chew on her right bootie. I removed the offensive garments and put them in the backpack, with the remains of today's blood meal, before deciding that today was a good day to start teaching them the basics.

"Past father me," I signed, pointing at myself. I repeated the phrase several times until the girls copied me and then began to work on their finger and hand position, ensuring that they had each word down perfectly, before moving on to the next phrase.

We went over the signs for blood, worm hole, and home that day. The next day we went over father, love, you, and me, but I kept having to stop and tell the girls not to bite themselves, because their hands would invariably drift into their mouths. Then I taught them the word destroy when they tore their leather leash and I had to send them home early to get another one.

The day after that I taught them their names and the following day they seemed too little to do anything but hold and cuddle. I held them for about a week in their time, only trying to teach them to keep their hands away from their sharp teeth and not break their leash, and then they were gone.

My little tiny babies left and toddlers came back in their place and I wanted to cry. I was sad, because my precious time with my babies was over, but I was also overjoyed with relief that I was finally being rescued. The intense emotions caused a distinct tingling in my eyes. The girls looked to be about the size of three year old humans and the size Allison was when she was two hundred years old, so I guessed that they were around two hundred.

"Hello past father," Kair signed and Kare jumped into my arms. The leather leashes were gone now, so there was no cord joining the girls and preventing them from accidentally getting separated. But the leather bracelets were still decorating their wrists.

"Hello R and Air," I signed back, as soon as my hands were free again after setting Kare down. "Happy see you me. Love you."

"Love you," they both signed back.

"Rescue me you?" I asked, putting all of my limited hope into this question. I was never good with hope, so I did not have much of it, but I did have some.

"Yes," Kare signed.

"Take off home?" I asked. "Break down worm hole?"

"Yes," Kair signed. "Great Grandma home."

"Yes, Great Grandma help," Kare added.

"Lead way," I signed with a smile on my face. I did not know who the girls were talking about when they signed Great Grandma, but as long as it meant that I would be out of this blasted wormhole and free to breathe air again and drink fresh blood, it was alright by me. And I was extremely excited about the prospects of seeing Alice again. This was not our longest separation, but it was the longest without any contact what so ever.

"Follow us," the girls signed simultaneously and then went to work repositioning the wormhole. They did not move it far, just a few hundred yards to the east of the plantation to the untamed marshland. The creek I had played in as a boy was over this way, only the water was clearer and cleaner; this water was a brownish green muck that only the alligators and the fish would dare swim in. It was curious that the water could run so clear there and be so vile here when the two were only a few yards apart.

Once we were in position, Kare signed, "Past go."

I did not want to go further into the past, because we were already so far back in time that I was just a little boy. There was not much left to see of my human life and right now what I really wanted to see was my present. "Future go? Present go?" I asked confused.

"No. First past go," Kare signed.

When I did not reply, Kair added, "First pick up hosts. Then future go."

I still did not quite understand what the plan was, but I decided to just go along with them. The note I had, said something about finding their hosts. "Lead way," I signed and followed them into the past.

We traveled for a long time, but not nearly as long as we had the first time, because the slope of this hill was mild in comparison to the mountain we had climbed to get from the present to my baby brother Jeremiah's time. At least a few years ticked by, but I was not at all aware of just how many years passed.

As time passed the swamp land changed. The land dried up and a few small hills rose out of the marshes, forcing the water into defined channels. The land was still wet and boggy, but it was just enough of a difference that humans could now walk across most of the area, whereas before there was at least a foot of water covering the entire field. I could see humans walking across the area now.

There was a set of teenaged twins with curly blond hair, walking across the hills carrying a basket of laundry each. I thought at first that these girls were my girls, because their backs were turned to me. But then we followed after them, pushing the wormhole in the direction they were headed, stopping only when we found them washing clothes at the head of the stream, right below a small waterfall. The water here was even cleaner than it was downstream and did not resemble the muck of the future in the slightest.

We positioned the wormhole right next to the teenagers and were able to see their faces for the first time. I knew immediately that they were not my twins and that they were human, but they also seemed eerily familiar. They both looked like me and even more like my mother, but it was a few minutes before I realized where I had seen these faces before: there was a painting of one of them with my grandfather at the Allen Plantation. I had not gone inside the plantation house during our recent visit, but I still remembered that face from that painting. It was of my grandfather's wedding and he always said that she was my Grandmother Allen.

And now that I saw their faces, I put two and two together and realized that one of these girls was the great grandmother my girls had said would help us. "Great Grandma help us?" I asked Kair and Kare.

"Yes," signed Kare.

"Nana Mariam, Nana Mariel, we're here," Kair spoke out loud into the fabric of time. This was the first time I had ever heard her speak out loud in the wormhole, because of the risk of emptying her lungs completely. Whenever this happened the girls would either have to exit the wormhole at whatever time we were in, which they could not do this far in the past, or go home to the future to breathe. But if we were getting out of here very shortly, however that would occur, then that would not be a significant problem.

"It's Kare and Kair," Kare added. "Pull us out please."

The teenagers looked at each other and smiled, before putting their wash down on the shore and reaching into our wormhole. Bright shafts of ultraviolet and infrared light broke through the wormhole from their fingertips. Then their hands broke through and were inside our wormhole, while their bodies stayed firmly rooted in reality. Kair put each of her hands in the hands of one twin, while Kare did the same with the other. Mariam and Mariel tighten their grip on my girls before pulling them through to reality.

"Nana! We've finally got him!" Kair shouted excitedly.

"Nana, help us rescue Daddy!" Kare shouted at the same time.

"Calm down, one thing at a time," the twin holding Kare said. She had on a beige colored dress, while the other one was dressed in a tan colored dress.

"Now what's goin' on sweat pea?" the girl holding Kair asked.

"Daddy's trapped in that wormhole," Kair said.

"Pull him through Nana, please?" Kare begged.

"Where?" "How?" the teenagers asked simultaneously.

"He fell in and can't get out," Kare answered.

"He's right here. You've gotta help us pull him out. Pretty please?" Kair begged.

"Okay, let's try," the girl in the tan dress said.

The teenagers set the toddlers down, before reaching into the wormhole for me. I inched closer to them, placing my left hand in the hand of the twin in the beige dress and my right in the other twin's left hand. The girls felt around with their free hands until they made contact with my body. One twin wrapped her arm around me, while the other one grabbed hold of my arm, and then they started pulling. I planted my feet firmly in the mesh of time and tried to use the leveraged to force myself out of the wormhole to freedom. I pushed with all of my might and the twins pulled with all of theirs, but in the end they gave up without pulling me through.

"We'll have to get Monroe," the twin with the beige dress said.

"I'll go, Mariam, you stay with Arianna and Ariel," the girl in the tan dress, presumably Mariel said. She seemed to be indicating my twins when she said Arianna and Ariel, but I was not sure why, other than the fact that these names started with the same syllable as my twin's names; Arianna started with air, while Ariel started with are.

"Don't lose him Mariel," Mariam said, picking Kair and Kare up from the ground, while Mariel ran off to find Monroe.

"Is it really him? My grandson from the future?" Mariam asked my girls, once her sister was gone.

"Yep, we've got Daddy!" Kair proclaimed.

"He's a good daddy; you'll like him," Kare added.

"How did he fall into a timehole?" Mariam asked.

"We were in his tummy before we came out. The hole opened up and we all fell in," Kare answered.

"You were in Daddy's tummy?" Mariam asked confused.

"Yep," Kair answered.

"Of course," Kare added. "We're Daddy's twins, we told you that."

"Sorry, I just assumed you were Daddy's twins but were in your Mommy's tummy," Mariam replied.

"You're funny! Why'd we be in Mommy's tummy when we're Daddy's?" Kare asked.

Mariam did not get a chance to answer, because Mariel came running back with a young man, who I presumed to be Monroe. He looked like me and like the teenagers and I could feel a family tie between the three.

"Where's the hole?" the young man asked.

"Right here, Monroe," Mariam answered, setting my girls down.

Mariam reached into the wormhole again, but it took her a minute to find my hand and arm again. Mariel quickly joined her, locating my other hand and arm. As before, their hands completely entered the wormhole, sending rays of light scattering, and clasped mine tightly. Monroe inserted himself in between the twins, but his hands did not penetrate on his own, so each twin lead one of his hands through. He grabbed hold of my waist and each twin hooked an arm under my armpits and then the three pulled in unison, I kicked and pushed with my legs, and I finally slid out of the hole.

* * *

><p>Author's note: Remember when Allison said if you combine Alice and Jasper's genetics, you can get time travel? This chapter should help explain how: Jasper has opening up wormholes in his family history and Alice has looking forward through time.<p> 


	30. Book1 Carlisle ch12

Carlisle POV:

After our talk, I gave the go ahead and Jasper went to work on preparing our children to enter human society. He called up the American prison system and arranged to acquire ten serial murderers to test out a new form of execution that he was allegedly inventing.

"It was as easy as taking candy from a baby, the Americans were so eager to get rid of their murderers," Jasper said when he came back with ten humans sentenced to death. "I just showed up with my transfer orders and my squadron of prison guards and promised to return the corpses as proof that the executions had been carried out."

There was a time when the Americans would insist on executing their own prisoners, but they were long since over that and would now gladly pay other countries to take their criminals off of their hands and we were doing it for free.

"And the children? Are you sure they're prepared for this?" I asked concerned.

"We've been discussing it in class for months now. And we've been covering human rights once a year since they were in Kindergarten."

"Alright. Who's first?"

"I think we should go in order of age and let the younger children watch the video footage. That way they see what they're up against."

"Where are we doing this?" I asked.

"The school house. I already have the room and video camera set up. Do you want to watch?"

"Is anyone else coming?"

"Just Emmett and Edward. The three of us will be more than enough to keep ten children under control."

"I'd like to see how my boys do and if all of the other fathers are there, then I don't want them to feel left out," I said.

He nodded and I followed him to the school house to check on the prisoners. We did not tell the humans the truth about what awaited them, but we did tell them that we were going to test a new method of execution on them and that beforehand we wanted to interview them each separately.

The next morning we had one final preparation session at school for the children and in the afternoon, we started the tests. I waited in the classroom with the children while we watched what was happening in the interrogation room, aka the modified music room, on the big screen. Edward brought in the first prisoner and said, "We want you to meet our children before you die, as sort of a scared straight program. The kids aren't that bad, but Warden Jasper's daughter Allison has a thing for rockets."

"It's not me you've gotta worry 'bout, I'm not the child killer in this group," the man replied.

Edward nodded and then opened the door to let Jasper and Allison in. Jasper introduced Allison to the human subject and she shook his hand. She paused a moment to smell him and then calmly sat down at the table and he followed her lead. She and her litter mate had lived amongst the humans for their entire first year of life, while this compound was being built, so if anyone could do this, she and Jackson could.

Edward and Jasper stood back and let the human give a, "Don't be like me," lecture that he must have learned in American prison. At the end, Allison shook his hand, smelled him again, and thanked him for his time. Then she came back and we all cheered and congratulated her, before sending Jackson in. Jackson's meeting went as well as Allison's had, but he came back saying how delicious the human had smelled. After Jackson we switched to a new prisoner and repeated the process with Eliza and Masen, who both managed to leave their humans alive, but were clearly more tempted than the first two.

Aiden kept his cool during his test and I was so proud of him. The first time we had to intervene was when Lily entered the room and went straight for her prisoner's neck. Emmett grabbed her and got her to focus and she was able to continue and keep herself under control for the duration of the meeting. It must have been going too well, because Lily's mishap was the beginning of a slew of them.

We switched prisoners again, before Ashley's turn. She entered the room, fell to her knees, and started screaming. Jasper tried to calm her, but it was not working and the human got up and approached her as if to attack. Ashley must have gotten the child sex offender, because Edward intervened and held him back saying, "You won't touch this one you disgusting repulsive vile creature. I cannot stand animals that would do such awful things to children. You are the lowest of the low."

Between the predator misbehaving and Ashley screaming, Jasper escorted Ashley out of there before her time was up. She did not even get in a solid sniff.

Jasper let Scryan have the same human that had tried to attack Ashley, which was probably a bad move. Scryan was taller than the human and male and the human only had a thing for helpless little girls, so the sexual predator probably would not try to make a move on him. And even if he did, Scryan was more than capable of defending himself against a human, but the sexual predator was not safe from him. He was upset over the audacity the human had had to think such impure thoughts about his sister. We learned after the fact that Masen had given Scryan the play-by-play of the human's thoughts and of course Scryan had not been able to see his own encounter with the human beforehand, because he could not see humans. Or maybe it was his bloodlust, but either way, the human did not survive and neither Jasper nor Edward stopped him.

We all watched as Scryan failed. At first he snapped the neck and drank deeply, but then he paused mid-suck as a vision overtook him. He was frozen in place kneeling over the dead human as the vision consumed him and a small stream of blood trickled down his victim's neck onto his shirt. Not even Edward or Jasper moved to remove the remaining temptation from Scryan's grasp as they too stood frozen in time. And on my side of the wall, Masen and Eliza seemed equally entranced by what Scryan was seeing, while all of the other children just sat in silent confusion.

It was Emmett who moved first. "Stay here and watch the children Carlisle," he said rushing out of the room.

It was only a second latter that Emmett could be seen on the screen entering the interview room. He pulled the dead human away from Scryan and then Jasper and Edward snapped into action. Jasper went to help Emmett with the body, while Edward put his hand on Scryan's shoulder. I had thought it would be the other way around and that Jasper would go to comfort his son and Edward would help Emmett clean up the premises, but there was clearly something else going on, because Scryan did not seem to be upset with himself.

A huge smile lit up Scryan's face long before he came out of the vision and said, "I can see. I can see them all!"

"He saw the humans," Eliza explained, turning to Allison. "How's this possible? I thought your Mom said that they can only see what they are or have been?"

"Why are you all looking at me?" Allison asked incredulously. "Just because I know everything about the natural world doesn't make me psychic! I have no more insight into individual vampire's powers than anyone else. All I know is that Scryan's powers stem from the prefrontal cortex of the brain and work the same way as Mom's do."

"Mom drank human when she was new, so she can see humans?" Jackson asked looking at Allison who shrugged in response.

"No, Aunt Alice could see the humans before she ever drank one. She had a vision of herself drinking him before she ever saw him," Eliza said.

There was silence for the next few minutes while Emmett, Edward, and Jasper cleaned up and Scryan went back into his visions, clearly enthralled by his newfound sight. They were silent when Jasper came into the newly cleaned room and took his son into his arms. Then they all came back into the classroom. I would have hoped Scryan would be repentant for what he had done, but instead he still had that smile on his face.

"Mom could see humans when she was turned because she still had her own human blood in her system," Scryan began when he walked into the room. He had everyone's rapped attention. "I couldn't see humans when I emerged, because I never had any human blood of my own. I had my host's blood, but that was different, because it was fed to me through my umbilical cord. The placenta within the egg filters and modifies the blood to make it perfect for fetal consumption. Even when I severed the cord and drank freely from it, the blood was still from the cord and had passed through the placenta. And the synthetic blood we drink is also modified; it's only now, that I've had pure unaltered human that I can see them."

"How do you know all that?" Jasper asked.

"Allison will figure it out now that she's decided to think about it. She already knows the clues; she just hasn't put them together yet," Scryan replied.

"Okay, but even if that's true, then why can you see werewolf?" Jackson asked. "You've never had werewolf blood."

Scryan shrugged, but Allison answered for him, "Werewolves don't have blood, like us, and they're closely related to us. He probably doesn't need a sample of their blood and DNA to see them."

"Then why can't he see the shape-shifters? They're closer to us than the werewolves," Jackson replied.

"The shape-shifters are hybrid shape-shifters. If there were any full-blood shifters he could probably see them," Allison said.

"Scry, can you see the hybrids now?" Jackson asked curiously.

"Let me see," Scryan answered, before entering another vision. He searched for several minutes before returning with a shake of his head. "No, I still can't see them."

"He's never had hybrid blood," Allison replied. "Maybe if he drank a hybrid shifter he would be able to see them."

"Well he's not going to drink one, so we'll never know," I said ending that line of thought. "It's bad enough that he just took human blood into his system."

A few of the children agreed with me and nodded their heads, but most everyone else, including my three adoptive adult sons, were so intrigued by this new discovery that they were not thinking about the life that was just lost. No one was particularly sad to see that the vilest human specimen we had did not survive, which saddened me. I had hoped that my family would have more compassion, despite what he had done. These prisoners were serving a purpose for us and although I knew they could not be rehabilitated, I was upset about the death just as I would be upset over any death.

And I was bothered by the fact that Edward and Jasper had not tried to prevent it and that my grandson had taken a murderer into his body. But the worst part was that Scryan said that he had not even tried to resist, because he was so mad about what the human had thought about Ashley. He was very protective over his littermate. And after a lengthy discussion on human rights, we decided to stop for the day and regroup tomorrow to continue with the human tests.

The next day Jasper and Emmett went over the same lecture they had given the children the day before and espoused the value of human life and the negative effects of drinking humans. Then it was Violet's turn. She was fine at first, but she got inappropriately close to her human in order to get a better whiff of him. Then she just kept sniffing the guy and Emmett had to pull her off of him, although she had kept her control the entire time.

Adriel did better, although he did sniff his human four times, and then it was Scryan's turn to go again. And again, Scryan lost control and went right for the neck, but this time Jasper and Edward both stopped him before the human died. But it was too late, because Scryan had broken the skin and his venom was already in the human's blood stream. This time Scryan had a vision of it, but not until it was too late and already happening.

Jasper and Edward decided that the best thing to do was to kill the human so that he would not suffer and because we could not allow him to be turned. Once he was dead, they made Scryan stay in the room and smell the blood without drinking any of it. After that we had to let the kids out for the day to clean up the room and prepare the body to be sent back with the other one from yesterday. It was worse today because a lot of blood had spilled this time, when yesterday it had been a clean kill and the victim did not bleed much, because his heart had stopped before his skin was broken.

"I think the kids have done remarkably well considering," Edward said while we were cleaning up.

"I agree. Eight of the ten are still alive," Emmett added.

"I think we should keep going until Scryan drinks them all," Jasper said, somewhat disappointed in his son.

"He was trying today Jasper, he really was determined to resist until the moment he smelled him and all thought and reason left his mind," Edward replied.

"I know he feels really bad. I had just hoped that it would be someone else's kid who messed up," Jasper said.

"Well you've got twice as many kids as the rest of us, so odds were pretty good that one of yours would slip. Look how well Jackson and Allison did. And I think we can safely say that Ashley will _never_ slip, because she can't even get close to them," Emmett replied.

"Don't remind me. I think her response was the worst," Jasper said sighing.

"Well we can start from the top tomorrow and maybe someone else's kid will mess up. I know both of mine were a tad too friendly to take out in public. Can you imagine going to the mall and Lily and Violet just walking up to some random stranger and sniffing?" Emmett asked laughing.

"You shouldn't be laughing about this, it's a very serious matter," I said scolding my grown sons.

"Sorry Dad," "Sorry," "You're right," Emmett, Jasper, and Edward replied in unison.

We cleaned up the room and the next day was day three of testing the children. This time Lily and Violet did better and behaved normally, but Jackson sniffed his human a little too closely and Ashley freaked again. Eliza, Aiden, Adriel, and Allison did wonderfully again, but Masen did not. Masen started off sniffing his human a little too closely and then had to be restrained when he lost control. Luckily Jasper was right there grabbing his arm and holding him back, so he did not manage to get a bite in.

The big news this time around was that Scryan's human survived, although I think it was more vigilance on Edward and Jasper's part than control and restraint on Scryan's part. Scryan's eyes went black and he lost control, but Jasper and Edward each grabbed hold of him when he entered the room and they did not let go when he lost control. The good news was that Scryan was able to regather his control and finally had a successful meeting with a human.

We all celebrated when Scryan left the room with the human still intact and breathing, although now we were left with a bit of a problem, because we had two humans who had been attacked by our children and we did not want to put them back in the same holding cell with the ones who did not know what was going on. But we did not want to kill them either and they were both rather traumatized by the experience, so I ended up sedating the pair before placing them back in the holding cell.

We repeated the tests day after day until the surviving humans went crazy, because they all knew that we were vampires. At first they were in denial, but after two weeks they had each been in the room with a thirsty vampire child who had given us away. One man was particularly disturbed by what he had seen and he just kept screaming that he wanted to know what we were planning on doing with him.

"Relax; we are just using you as cannon fodder so the little vampires can learn to control themselves," Edward explained. "You were sentenced to death and the state doesn't really care if you die by lethal injection or if you bleed out."

"That big blond one that tried to eat me wasn't no child," the human replied.

"He is a child. He's only eleven and he's my youngest," Jasper replied. "He's even twins with the tiny black haired girl who screamed at you. Now I'm sorry that my children disturb you, but you can either get over it and help us teach them to control themselves, or we can kill you right now."

"Which will it be?" Edward asked holding up the needle.

That particular human chose the needle and by the end of a month, all of the surviving humans chose the needle too. Not that there were that many left, because Masen, Violet, and Jackson had each killed a human and Scryan had killed three more, so in the end, only four humans chose lethal injection. It was the humane thing to do and we now felt confident that we could take the children out into human society and they would be fine. Well everyone except for Ashley, because she never did stop screaming at the humans and she will have to stay away from them when we move.

As for the corpses, we sent them back to America with a note explaining that the new method of execution was not successful and that four of the prisoners had to be killed by lethal injection and that several more accidentally broke their necks in the process. We thanked them for the use of their humans, but we would not need them again.

And so with the children properly prepared and the estate built, we moved and the first all vampire congress was called to order in Manitoba Canada. The first thing on our agenda was writing a constitution and we spent months and months going over every little detail that should and should not be in it. Almost a year passed before we even wrote anything down, besides the draft that Jasper had produced for us, and then we spent even more time debating every single little nuance of each word. This was the first time a vampire constitution was actually being written down, because of our need for secrecy, and I wanted to get it just right. We were still worried about secrecy, but our computers had the latest encryption software and Allison assured us it was safe.

And while I was busy working on the constitution, Edward, Esme, Jasper, and Emmett took the children down to the local middle school and enrolled them all, except for Ashley. Ashley had never gotten used to human emotions and Jasper had a story in place to explain why she would not be attending school with the others; he was going to claim that Ashley was mentally ill, which was the same excuse he and Alice had used when they had first started going to high school together.

Back in the nineteen sixties we had told the humans that Alice had epilepsy to disguise her visions as seizures. And since Scryan and Jackson also had visions, the default plan was to claim that they also had epilepsy, if an unexpected vision hit. The boys were instructed not to use their powers at school, but visions were not always controllable, so a backup plan was very important. Epilepsy had been cured a thousand years ago, but a new form of the old disease was back and growing increasingly common, so it would be the perfect cover story.

But Ashley did not have visions and epilepsy did not fit well with her powers, so she would be claiming to have a different mental illness. Schizophrenia was a better fit and although that disease had also been cured, there was another new disease, called Markov's Disease, growing in prevalence with similar symptoms. Markov's Disease had all the classic symptoms of Schizophrenia, but was caused by a retrovirus that infected the brain.

Ashley, Scryan, and Jackson were not the only ones with powers, but they were the ones with the most noticeable powers and we were hoping that the others could all learn to hide their gifts from the humans. They had had practice with not eating humans, but they had yet to practice being in a situation with lots of human children and blending in, which was why we chose to move to Manitoba at the beginning of the summer, so that they would have the entire summer to meet, interact with, and blend in with humans.

Jasper normally would help out with this type of thing, but he could not do so this time, because he had to stay home with Ashley. Our compound was secluded enough that Ashley would be fine, as long as no one stopped by for an unexpected visit, but there were hundreds of thousands of humans in Manitoba and Alice and Scryan could not ensure that none of them would suddenly change their mind and decide to drop by unexpectedly, so Jasper had to stay. Alice might also be useful to go with the children, but I needed her here with me working on the constitution and giving me insight into each little facet of the law and the other vampires in the congress. And with Scryan already there with the children, sending Alice was redundant.

Edward was chosen to supervise the children and devise a series of increasingly difficult challenges to test the children, because with his mind reading, he could tell when something was going wrong more quickly than the others. And since Emmett was the usual teacher, he was assigned to help Edward with the children. Since coming out of his depression, Emmett has been doing better and returning to his old duties more and more. He was making lesson plans again, and with Edward's guidance, I was confident that he would return to his normal gregarious self.

The two of them planned on starting with simple exercises, like taking the kids hiking on secluded trails and happening across a few stray humans. All nine of Edward and Emmett's pupils passed the first test, because they all had experience with single humans at a time, because of the helicopter pilots that regularly visited our island. The children had never gotten very close to the pilots before, but that experience combined well with the training with the convicts, and prepared them for the lone hiker scenario. They quickly moved on to meeting a dozen or so humans at once in the park, which took a lot more practice and not just because of the increase scent concentration. With the park, the children actually began to hold conversations of their own with human children.

Once human interaction was mastered at the park, Emmett and Edward took them on other outings chosen to be more similar to what they could expect from school, such as children's art classes organized by the city and volunteering at children's homes. But by far the assignment that was most challenging was shopping at the mall, because of the sheer number of humans involves. There were a few close calls, but all of the children passed, so we were sure they were ready for human school.

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><p>Author's Note: This was the last Carlisle chapter and I hope you can see how we've now come around to the beginning of Masen's story. Although, I haven't finished everything Carlisle has to say, so I think I will have to have a few Carlisle chapters in the next installment of this saga, which I've already begun thinking about. I think it's time that the hybrids form a new species- I'm thinking more like Nessie and less like Jake, so drinking blood and not shifting. What do you think? What should they be called? First one to volunteer a species name gets to choose the species name.<p> 


	31. Book2 Masen ch9

Masen's POV:

We were all nervous today for our first day of school, including our parents. Once we packed our backpacks and got dressed, we went out to the vans, but we were like an hour early, so our parents did not leave; instead they were running around reminding us of weird stuff that we were or were not supposed to do in school.

My dad said, "Don't forget to breathe more often," and, 'Don't project to a human or let them know that you know their thoughts.' The second bit was aimed specifically at me and Eliza, because we were the only mind readers in the group, so we were the only ones who heard it.

My mom said, "Don't drink at school, because the humans won't approve if they see you. And even if you think you're being sneaky about it, you could still accidentally dribble some down your shirt." Mom and Uncle Emmett may be messy eaters and occasionally get blood on their clothes, but the rest of us were much more careful, so I did not share her concern. I only got blood on my clothes if Eliza was somehow involved.

"And once you smell blood, it'll make it harder for you to resist the blood of the other students," Uncle Jasper added, making a much more effective point.

"Don't drink the other students," Grandpa Carlisle said. "They're people too."

'Duh.'

"And try to blend in," Aunt Rosalie added, as if there was anyway someone as beautiful as Violet could ever blend in.

"And don't take off your sweaters, because we want the humans to get use to you all covering up: it'll make things easier when the sun actually comes out," Aunt Alice said.

"And we don't want them to see how hot your bodies are and get their hormones going," Uncle Emmett joked.

I remember Uncle Jasper thinking once during our wrestling matches that our prepubescent bodies come in handy in a fight, since we were so flat that there was nothing extra hanging out for our opponents to grab. Why put it out there to be irrevocably damaged during a fight if it was not going to be used for thousands of years? He had even gone so far as to ask Allison and Jackson if they knew anything about a possible link between selection pressures for lean fighters and delayed puberty. And as soon as their father brought the subject up, Allison of course knew him to be right and Jackson went off in search of the perfect vision to prove the theory.

My point in bringing up this story now was that I highly doubt the humans will be all over our prepubescent bodies. Evolutionarily humans were not subjected to excess fighting before their reproductive years and from the looks of them, prepubescent was not a term that could be used to describe our class mates. I projected as much to Allison.

'Don't be so sure: they'll be attracted to our pretty faces before they notice our bodies,' Allison thought back to me and I shrugged.

Her face was beautiful enough that I could not disagree, but I had taken to asking Scryan if he could see me having a growth spurt down there, ever, because that was how worried I was about the subject. Of course he always said no and only partly out of humor or spite; mostly he just could not see that far ahead. Eventually he told me to stop asking about things that were more than a hundred years ahead or he was going to stop looking for visions for me. I had no choice but to acquiesce, and with Aunt Alice, Kair, and Kare all being girls, I could not ask them, so it seemed that I would just have to wait and find out the old fashioned way: through the torture of having to live my own life as it comes.

'Your face is way more than pretty; stunning is probably a better word to describe it. I think you'll have more trouble than me,' I teased.

'Masen, are you paying attention?' my dad asked in his thoughts.

'Yeah, why?' I projected.

I had been paying attention before I got sidetracked with Allison. I was pretty sure Aunt Alice had just said something to Scryan about not telling the humans their futures, before ordering Jackson not to tell them their pasts, and finally imploring Allison to not tell them the truth. I was sure of this last bit, because Allison had turned away from my comment about her stunning face to say, "Yes mom."

'Your talents are on a need to know basis and the humans don't need to know,' was a quote still banging around Allison's head, but it had the pitch of her mother's voice, so I was prepared to use it as proof of the attention I had been paying.

'Because I just reminded you to speak through Scryan in the event of an emergency and your translating program quits working. But don't forget to sign to him and the others too when you project to them,' Dad thought.

'Yeah, I heard all that the first time, which was why I didn't reply this time, the sixty-third time,' I lied. I did already know all of this from the first sixty-two times, but I did not want him to know that I had been tuning him out in favor of Allison just now. Normally I could follow several trains of thought at once and keep loose tabs on a whole room full of people, but I tended to get tunnel vision around Allison; sometimes it is like she is the only one in the room even in a room full of people. That is one of the many things I like about her: she silences the voices in my head.

"And don't forget that you all are supposed to be dating. Hold your boyfriend or girlfriend's hand as much as possible and don't hold anyone else's hand," Grandma Esme was saying.

'That goes for you too Masen: no shielding anyone other than Allison at school,' Dad added.

'That's not fair! I have every class with Scryan. What if something happens that we don't want Eliza to know about? The humans won't think holding his hand counts as cheating on his sister, because he's a boy,' I protested.

'Yes they will: they'll think you're gay, trust me. I know you still haven't been through puberty, but they have and their thoughts will be in the gutter. Little boys in elementary school hold hands, but only gay boys hold hands in middle school.'

We had a pair of gay vampires running around our island for several years, because Stefan had finally found his mate, so I was familiar with the concept. I just had never thought that anyone would ever equate my hand holding tendencies with homosexuality. It was inconvenient, but not that big of a deal. So what if the humans thought I liked boys? So what if I really did end up liking boys? I could not see why this was a problem.

'Well Scryan is fairly good looking,' I goaded my dad.

'This isn't funny Masen. Odd children, children like you, are more likely to get singled out as possible homosexuals. If you hold his hand, that will just add to it and rumors will spread,' dad replied, as if this was a big deal. Maybe it was a big deal to him, but to me it was a bigger deal not to be able to shield others.

I had not been paying attention to where Eliza was in all of this, especially just then, because that was the moment Kair and Kare had chosen to arrive. There were two new minds to scan in the periphery of my brain and there was no indication that I should be looking for my sister. The last time I had looked for Eliza she was over on the other side of the driveway with Scryan and I did not notice her approaching me silently from behind. I did notice when she decked me and sent me skidding across the asphalt on my face. The asphalt gave way like mush and did not hurt me, but my head throbbed where her fist came in contact with it.

"There will be no shielding _my_ Scryan from me for any reason, period, end of story. And there won't be any thinking to Dad about it either," Eliza said before I came to a stop, digging my fingers into the pavement to slow my body down.

"And there won't be any decking your brother in school either!" Mom scolded. "Look at what happened to the poor ground." I sat up and looked at the marks I had made during my brief trip across the asphalt. Not only had my fingers left gouges, but my nose had too, because my face was harder than the ground. At least the crack in my head was sealing already.

"Here, go change," Aunt Alice said handing me a bag of spare clothes. The friction from being caught between the ground and my body had damaged my sweater and my pants, creating several holes. Even my shoes were all scuffed up. "And don't get any ideas for asphalt surfing Jackson or you're grounded for life."

"Yes Mom," Jackson replied looking sheepish. Only Jackson could see Eliza beating me up and think it looked fun. Ideas of swimming in slightly molten asphalt came to his mind, but he could not think of a single reason why it might pose an advantage to swimming in water, so he dropped it.

I took the bag and went into the nearest bathroom, which was located inside the garage, to change. Aunt Rosalie had insisted on a full bathroom being built into the garage so that she could wash the oil out of her hair after working on the cars without having to walk all the way back to her house. It was convenient now.

The clothes in the bag were exactly the same as the ones I had on, meaning that Aunt Alice had not only known someone would get hurt before school started, but she had known that it would be me specifically. She could have stopped it, but no, she let Eliza get away with it. Come to think of it, Scryan must have seen it too and he had not said anything either. But then he was supposed to be her boyfriend and he really was her best friend, so it was not unusual for him to hide something from the grown-ups to cover for her. But Aunt Alice should not have been on her side. She should have warned me or my parents and put a stop to it. My life was so unfair.

'Masen, I didn't know what would happen, because of Kare and Kair's arrival: I can't see anything with those two around. Eliza knows that and she must have timed this perfectly. Scryan told me he saw something about you needing a change of clothes and I had assumed that you would spill your breakfast. I'm sorry,' Aunt Alice was thinking when I looked for her thoughts.

'Whatever,' I projected back to her. 'You could've warned me.'

'If I start warning you, Scryan will stop telling me things about what he sees. And then no one will have spare clothes for you and you'll have to go to school with holes in your clothes and explain to the humans that your sister beats you up every morning. But I agree that she's out of control, which is why I let you stay at my house so much,' she replied.

There was nothing more I could do about it now, so I finished getting dressed and tried to brush the asphalt off of my skin. It took me a while to get it off of my nose and out from under my finger nails, so by the time I came out of the bathroom, everyone was loaded in the vans and waiting for me. The adults had finally backed off with their hovering and with Kair and Kare's recent arrival, it was time to go.

Eliza seemed to be getting away with what she had done without being punished. The only obvious sign that she was in trouble of any kind was that she was not in my dad's van with me or sitting next to Scryan as usual. Instead Allison and I were next to Scryan, Jackson was in the front seat, and the twins were in the back, while Eliza was in Uncle Emmett's van.

'Masen, Eliza is grounded from seeing Scryan for a month for what she did to you, so I don't want you to think she's gotten away with it,' my dad thought as he drove. 'She won't be leaving our house and he won't be coming over. She already doesn't have many classes with him and now she won't be riding in the same van with him. The only problem is that means she will always be at our house, so you will be living at the Whitlock's and Mom and I will visit you there.'

Eliza was getting off pretty easy in my opinion, but then again she and Scryan were best friends and she was not being allowed to see him or leave the house, so she would probably be fairly miserable for the next month. I cannot imagine how awful it would be if I was banned from seeing Allison for a month.

'Sorry I didn't warn you Masen,' Scryan thought at me, 'but you know how Eliza is: she'd deck me for warning you.'

I did not respond, because I was still mad at him for being involved, so he continued in his thoughts. 'Masen, will you please forgive me? I told her not to do it, but she wouldn't listen to me. I even told my mom to get you new clothes, hoping that she'd figure it out and stop it. I know what it's like having an older sister who picks on you,' he thought bringing an image of Ashley tormenting him to the forefront of his mind.

'If I could control your sister, I would, but we both know I can't. We should be together on this, because we're about to head off to a school full of humans! I'd like to know that you've got my back if I slip into a vision. Mom says that I'm big enough that the humans won't bother me, but I think they'll eventually figure out that that doesn't mean anything. I mean I'm pretty good at defending myself in a fight with other vampire kids, but I don't know how to take on a human!'

Scryan could more than handle himself in our wrestling classes and was even one of the best fighters among us, but what he was concerned about was how to restrain a human from getting too close to him without hurting the human.

'Why's my baby brother freaking out? What're you telepathing to him?' Allison asked. She was in between the two of us and she was fairly protective of her brother and had obviously picked up on his worry. 'You know that he's just a big baby and can't be blamed for Eliza's actions. He still cuddles in Dad's lap every night for Darwin's sake! She pushes him around just like she does you.'

'I wasn't thinking anything to him. I was giving him the silent treatment. And if that's true, then why do you all let him see her?'

'He likes being dominated by females. Besides, after that time he had the vision of him marrying her when they grow up, Mom and Dad think they're mates and won't do anything about it. Think about how awful that's going to be for him: having to spend eternity as Eliza's lapdog?'

I laughed at that- my shoulders moved and a soft chuckling sound came out- it was one of only two sounds I seemed to naturally possess. 'Alright, I'll go easy on him; he does have it pretty bad,' I projected to Allison.

'Relax Scry, I'll still have your back with the humans,' I projected to Scryan. He had been thinking about the humans beating him up and not being able to defend himself, for fear of breaking the secret, which was a little unrealistic.

'Good, because if you let them get me, I've got this older sister who'll make you pay for it,' he teased, thinking again of Ashley. Even though she was mean to him some of the time, she was a lot nicer than Eliza was to me. They would play and get along fine, just as long as he did everything she said without questioning her. In fact, that relationship probably prepared him for his relationship with Eliza, because the two were very similar. The pore kid had it way worse than me.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I have a new Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy slash story, in case you want to check it out. Please Review!<p> 


	32. Book3 Jasper ch10

Jasper's POV:

The moment I was pulled out of that wormhole was just as shocking to my system as the moment I fell in had been. The bright light was too much for my eyes and blinded me, because I had grown acclimated to the dim light of the wormhole, while the hot Texan sun was shining brightly here in reality. The air pressure left a tingly sensation on my skin. And worst of all, the nausea was back. I had not felt this way since I first entered the wormhole and it had not taken me more than a few days to adjust, but now it seemed that I had to adjust back to normal. The whole thing reminded me of being on a confederate ship when I was human, because I had seasickness when I got on and landsickness when I got off.

"Well the girls were right, he's definitely a Jackson," Monroe said.

"Of course he is, he's my grandson after all," Mariam said.

"No, he's a Whitlock," Kair said.

"He looks just like you," Mariel said to Mariam.

"Daddy, you don't look so good," Kare told me, clinging to my leg.

"He's pregnant, he should lay down," Mariam said.

"He's a man, how can he be pregnant?" Monroe asked in shock.

"What?" Mariel asked confused.

"I don't know, but that's what the girls told me and he looks sick. He's been trapped in that hole for who knows how long, so I think we need to get him inside to lie down," Mariam answered.

"Thirsty Daddy?" Kair asked, looking up at me with her big round honey eyes.

"Yes sweetie," I said, in between gulping down breaths of fresh air. I was thirsty, but not as much as I was oxygen starved. I did not want to go inside and give up this wonderfully clean, fresh, luxurious air, especially not if in meant having to smell the stench of human up close. Plus, I did not want to risk my grandmother's life when I was somewhat thirsty. If I killed her before my mother was born, then my children would never exist.

"Daddy needs blood," Kare told Mariel.

"Do you have any cows, pigs, or sheep he could have?" Kair asked.

"He eats the same as you? Mariam asked my girls and they nodded.

"We have old Betsy in the barn. We were gonna slaughter her next week anyway, but we need that meat," Monroe said.

"I won't touch the meat," I replied, still breathing heavily. "Which way?"

Monroe led us back towards their homestead and Mariel and Mariam took my girls inside the house, while I went inside the barn, alone. I examined all of the cows until I determined which one was likely to be Betsy; she was the oldest cow and would no longer be good for milking and I drank her in a matter of seconds. I was not that thirsty, because the babies had been bringing me blood, so one cow was enough to top me off.

When I finished with Betsy, I left her there on the dirt floor and curled up in a ball under the loft, wishing the room would stop spinning. I was no longer panting for breath, but I was still breathing deeply, and again the nausea was the worst part of it all. I sat there trying to pull myself together for five minutes until I heard voices on the other side of the barn wall.

"Do you think he's okay? I think we need to check on him," one of the teenagers said, but I did not know which one.

"Don't go in there," one of my twins warned.

"Daddy's dangerous when he's drinking," my other twin added.

"I agree, we shouldn't bother him until he's ready to come out," Monroe said.

"But if he's pregnant with these twins then he could be in there havin' a miscarriage or some'in. He's been stuck in that timehole unable to breathe or eat," one of the teenagers replied.

"I'm worried about him too," the other teenager agreed. "Maybe we could just ask him if he's alright or if he needs help?"

"I'm alright," I said standing up slowly. I could not hide away from them forever and I was completely full, so I would not be dangerous. I might as well get it over with.

"Do you need to drink more?" Monroe asked. "There's no need to put anybody at risk, because we can always get more cows."

"No, I'm fine. The girls were bringing me blood while I was in the wormhole, so I wasn't that thirsty. I just haven't been around humans in a while," I said, opening the barn door. "Sorry I didn't clean Betsy up for you, but I'm feeling a bit landsick."

"I know how that is; when we came over on that boat from Mississippi I was seasick the whole time. And then when we landed, I was landsick. It took me 'bout a week before I stopped puking my guts out," Monroe said, revealing too much information.

"Why don't you go inside and rest on one of the beds?" Mariam asked.

"I don't think that's suck a good idea, 'cause Bethie is in there with Monty Junior," Monroe said. "And Ma's in there too." Judging by the way he referred to his mother, I would say that all three shared the same mother.

"Bethany is Monroe's wife and she has a newborn son," Mariel explained.

"And Monroe is your brother?" I asked for clarification.

"Yes."

"I don't need to go in the house, this right here is fine," I replied, flopping down in a pile of hay inside the barn. Kair and Kare immediately walked over to me and crawled in the hay with me, before cuddling into my sides.

"Alright," Mariel said, pulling up a stool and taking a seat next to me.

"I'm gonna go in and check on Bethie and Monty and then get back to fishing. I left my rod and tackle and everything," Monroe said, heading back towards the house.

"So are you really pregnant with the twins?" Mariam asked me.

"Yes," I answered, not knowing what else to say. I could deny it, but then I did not have any other explanation for how I fell into the wormhole and these people already seemed to know everything about my kind. They understood when the twins said I needed blood and did not even balk once. And they knew I could be dangerous without blood and posed a risk to their family members. Just how much did Kare and Kair tell them? And just how many times have the girls come to them before?

"How's that possible?" Mariel asked.

"The men in my species can get pregnant too. My wife was pregnant with my son Jackson and my daughter Ashley. I carried Allison, Scryan, and now Kare and Kair within my own body," I answered. I did not want to tell them about the eggs or the human parasitism, because I did not want to scare them anymore than they already were. "How did you pull me out? How did you pull the girls out?"

"Oh that? We've been pullin' those twins out of timeholes since we moved here," Mariel answered.

"Like them, we're talented too. We could open the holes and step in ourselves, but there's no air in there, so we can't breathe. And our holes aren't timeholes, 'cause they don't go nowhen," Mariam continued.

"We've never actually gone all of the way inside though, because once we get our heads in, we need to take a breath and then it's all over," Mariel added.

"Okay," I replied. It was not that much of a stretch to think that I had human family members that were gifted, but I was still shocked to hear just how gifted they were. Although, as long as they were human, opening wormholes was rather useless to them; it was very useful to me and I was very grateful for their talent. "What about Monroe? Is he special?"

"He thinks he is, but he's really not," Mariel replied.

"What about you? Are you gifted Jasper?" Mariam asked.

"Yes, I'm an empath," I answered, sharing my happiness and gratefulness at being rescued.

"Are you doing that?" Mariam asked in shocked surprise.

"Yes," I answered.

"Wow!" Mariel exclaimed.

"Wow indeed. Are there any other talents in your family?" Mariam asked.

"Well my half-sister was also an empath and my wife's a psychic. And when both parents are my kind, all of the children are talented."

"A psychic? Wow," Mariel said.

"It comes in handy with two time-traveling babies, but it's limited," I replied.

"What talents do my other great grandchildren have?" Mariam asked.

"Allison is all-knowing when it comes to math and the sciences. Jackson can see the past; I should ask him to look for you when I get back, but I bet he's watching us right now. His mom's bound to be worried sick about me and wondering where I am. Then Ashley's also an empath, like me, and Scryan's a psychic like his mother."

"Jackson, did you name him after us?" Mariel asked, referring to the fact that their last name was Jackson.

"I honestly didn't know your last name was Jackson before today. My wife named him and she always said it was the closest thing to Jasper Jr., without actually naming him Junior, that she could find," I explained.

"What about us? We're talented too," Kair said, motioning between herself and her sister.

"And my precious babies are time travelers," I concluded, hugging the girls to my chest and kissing them each on the forehead. They giggled and laughed. "What about you? What other talents are on your side of the family?"

"Ma makes people happy and I have a second cousin in Mississippi who's lucky," Mariam answered.

"And don't forget Great Grandpa knew stuff he shouldn't have known,  
>Mariel added.<p>

"That's just what Ma says; we never actually met him ourselves," Mariam replied.

"Yall came from Mississippi?" I asked and they nodded. "My wife's from Biloxi Mississippi."

"What's her last name?" Mariel asked.

"Brandon," I answered. "Mary Alice Brandon."

"We're not related to them, but there're a ton of Brandons in Mississippi. I think every other person there's named Brandon," Mariam replied.

"Well that's good: I'd hate to find out that I'm related to my wife."

"So tell me something Grandson of mine: what's my daughter Ashley like? That's her name, right? The girls told me your mother's name was Ashley," Mariam rambled.

"Why do you get to go first? I want to know what my children are like too!" Mariel complained.

"I never met you or any of your children," I informed Mariel and she pouted. "I never met Grandma either, because you died when Mam was a little girl. And yes, I believe Mam's name was Ashley," I said leaving out the epithet Allen that I had always added as a human, because her last name was not Allen yet.

"I die? No, I don't wanna die," Mariam protested. "Mariel, we can switch and you can name your daughter Ashley and be the grandmother."

"Those twins've always said it was you that spawned the woman who spawned their Daddy. Such a funny word, Daddy. I wonder why Pa went out of fashion?" Mariel asked.

"Daddy was easier for babies to say. It was all of the rage two hundred years in the future, although I think it's out again," I answered.

"Okay, so I get that you've never met me, but did you at least hear some'in 'bout me?" Mariel asked.

"I heard that my dead grandmother had a sister who married some rich guy over in Arizona," I replied. I did not remember hearing this as a human, but my mother had mentioned it during one of the family reunions during Jeremiah's time that I witnessed through the wormhole.

"A rich man? What's he do?" Mariel asked.

"I don't know, that's all I heard."

"Don't pester him Mari," Mariam said. "Now what else do you know 'bout me? Who'd I marry?"

"Grandpa's name was Augustus Allen Jr., but the grownups called him Augie. He started the Allen plantation in Houston when he was a young man with money from his mother. There was a big inheritance when she died, but he had two other brothers to split it with," I said.

"Augie? I marry Augie?" Mariam asked with disdain.

"Maybe they do have us mixed up and I'm the one who dies," Mariel said.

"Augie is courting Mariel, not me," Mariam added, clarifying the situation. "Lenny is courting me."

"I never heard of a Lenny," I replied.

"Lenny Cook. His parents are Joshua and Linda Cook and his brothers' names are Lyle and Larry," Mariam clarified.

"I knew Lyle and Lawrence Cook, but their brother Lenny died long before my time," I lied. Old Mr. Lenard Cook was alive even in Jeremiah's time, but he was crazy and not exactly the type of man I wanted my grandmother to date. Besides, he was not my grandfather, so she does not marry him anyway and all I was doing was saving her the heartbreak.

"Oh no! Poor Lenny," Mariel replied and Mariam just put her hand over her mouth in shock.

"I'm not positive which one of you is my grandmother, but my mother always said that she named my little sister Mariam after her dead mother. Mariam was one of only three of my siblings to make it to old age," I said changing the subject and making everyone involved forget the rather unpleasant conversation we had been having.

"What about Aunts and Uncles? Did Ashley have any siblings?" Mariam asked.

"Not full-blood, no, but Grandpa Augie remarried after she died. And I think there was a brother, Augustus the III, who died in childhood," I lied; not about little Augustus dying, but about Grandpa marrying Grandma Dinah. I did not see the point in sharing all of the details with my grandmother and she did not need to know that she was replaced by a slave. I was not sure how racist she was, but everyone was during this time and I did not want to bring the subject up.

"Oh…so I die after only having one or two children…" Mariam replied dejectedly.

"But my Mam did have lots of children. Quite a few of us made it to adulthood too, but Joseph and I died during the Civil War and Elijah and Margery died during the lawlessness that came after. If it wasn't for that war, seven of us would've survived, instead of three."

"Well I'm glad I'm not alive to see that," Mariam said.

"What's the Civil War?" Mariel asked.

"A horrible awful pointless war. We lose, so yall should just get out of Texas while you still can. Come to think of it, Arizona doesn't sound too bad. They were involved in the war, but they didn't make out as badly as Texas," I answered.

"Maybe I will," Mariel replied.

"But I'll have to stay if I'm gonna marry Augie," Mariam said making a sour face when she said my grandfather's name.

"He's not that bad. He took real good care of my mam," I offered, but left out all of the bad things the man did, because my grandmother did not need to worry about what she could not change. Plus, I did not want to talk my mother, and therefore myself and my children, out of existence.

"Well he does have a lot of money," Mariam conceded. "And he's a little bit handsome."

"What about Monroe? Didja ever meet him?" Mariel asked.

'Nope. I heard he went west with my grandmother's aunt during the war, but I think he might've come back afterwards. Someone mentioned that he moved back into Texas, but it was some new city northwest of here."

"So all our family's gone? Who came over for holidays?" Mariel asked.

"My Pa's family and Grandpa's family mostly; the Allens and the Whitlocks," I answered. Even during that family reunion in Jeremiah's time, everyone there was either a Whitlock or an Allen. "I don't ever remember meeting a Jackson and I didn't even know your maiden name was Jackson. But it's my turn to ask one now: why'd you call Kair and Kare Arianna and Ariel before?"

"Aren't those their names?" Mariam asked confused.

"Are is short for Ariel and Air is short for Arianna," Mariel insisted.

"No, Kare, with a silent K, is short for Zikare. And Kair, also with a silent K, is short for Zakaira," I revealed.

"You mean you didn't name Kare after me?" Mariel asked. Now that she mentioned it, Ariel did rhyme with Mariel, but that was a coincidence.

"No, I named them after I set of twins my wife Alice and I knew. They were human, so they died of old age before Allison and Jackson were born." How they died was a lie, but again, I did not want to frighten these young ladies.

"Oh, well at least my granddaughter Mariam will be named after me," Mariam said.

"You know, they look just like us and we're twins too. I think you should name them after us," Mariel said.

"Mari! They already have names!" Mariam hissed at her sister.

"I know Mary, but they're not born yet. That grandson of yours isn't even showing!" Mariel hissed back. "And look how thin he is: he can't be very far along at all."

And just then Kair and Kare's LED lights started flashing red and blue and we all turned our attention to the girls snuggled up in my arms.

"Blood?" they asked simultaneously.

"No, you'll have to go home. Tell Mommy I love her," I answered. There were more animals, but my girls needed to go back to their own time, because my future self will be worried about them. "And thank you for rescuing me. I love the two of you so much." And as I said this, I pushed them my love so that they could feel how much I loved them.

"Will you open the wormhole for us?" Kair asked.

"Love you too Daddy," Kare said.

"Of course," Mariam said.

"Come back soon," Mariel added and then they were opening the wormhole and my girls were climbing back inside.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: This is one of my favorite chapters. Next chapter is the first day of Pizza Hut Junior High!<p> 


	33. Book2 Masen ch10

Masen's POV:

By the time we finally got to school, we were late. We had planned on being early so that Uncle Emmett and my dad could walk us around and help us find all of our classes before school starts. And they wanted to give us time to adjust to the smell and make sure that we were alright being left there by ourselves and that none of us were about to freak out, but after Eliza's stunt and the inordinate amount of time it took me to get the asphalt out from under my nails, we showed up just as the first bell rang.

We already had our schedules and maps of the school, because our family was nothing if not prepared. And it was hard to get lost here, because all of the buildings at Pizza Hut Junior High were decorated with humongous murals depicting the building names. For example, Scryan and I had history first in the Meat Lovers building and the walls both inside and outside this building were painted with gigantic Meat Lovers pizzas. The placards outside the doors with the room numbers even had a Canadian bacon, pepperoni, and sausage background, as did the lighting fixtures. And if that were not obvious enough, the linoleum was printed with pictures of Meat Lovers pizzas.

It was hard for me and the rest of the kids to distinguish the Meat lovers from the Vegetarian, Works, Hawaiian, Barbeque Chicken, Pepperoni, and Cheese pizzas the first time Uncle Emmett had shown them to us. They all looked and smelled revolting. But we had known that our new school would be laid out by pizza type for months now, so we had been practicing. I no longer had any trouble recognizing the different flavors of pizza.

Cheese and Hawaiian were the easiest, because Cheese was plain with nothing on it but little dark spots where it was burnt, while Hawaiian had little yellow wedges of fruit-like substance. It was a little difficult at first to separate out Barbeque Chicken from Pepperoni, but once Uncle Emmett pointed out that pepperoni were round and chicken were strips, it made sense. The three most difficult to distinguish were Meat Lovers, Works, and Vegetarian, because all three of those had multiple toppings. The key was that Vegetarian did not have any of the red round pepperonis, Meat Lovers did not have any of the weird green strips, and the works had both pepperonis and green strips. Once we knew that, it was fairly easy to find the correct building and get to class.

When we got to our first class, our history teacher told the class that her name was Mrs. Breadstick, which matched what was printed on my schedule, but in her thoughts she gave away that that was not her real last name, because the school made all of the teachers use stupid Pizza Hut related names. Pizza Hut was footing the bill for this whole thing and paying her salary, so it was the least she could do to pretend that her last name was Breadstick, instead of Brunner. Brunner was not pizza-y enough, but at least Breadstick was better than Wal-Burner, which she had been forced to use at her last school, which was sponsored by Wal-Mart. There all of the teachers had picked names that started with Wal-.

Mrs. Breadstick had assigned seating for the entire class and she made sure to sit Scryan and me next to each other. This was one of our classes without any of the other kids, because Scryan had accidentally gotten a few too many of the history questions wrong and we were thus in the normal history class, instead of the advanced placement class with Aiden and Eliza. Lily was not in that class with them, because she had scored too high and had been bumped up to eighth grade advanced history with Jackson and Allison.

Mrs. Breadstick had heard that Scryan and I were special order kids, so she wanted us up front. Scryan's head would have obstructed the view of half the class, if we were not in a row cut short by the wall film, computer, and projection equipment. But even with our shortened row, there was still one boy sitting behind us that had trouble seeing over Scryan.

Pizza Hut may have been footing the bill, but they did not seem to be going all out on electronics the way they were with pizza murals. All of the electronics in the room looked like they were hundreds of years old. They were big and bulky and that weird shade of yellow that only happens when plastic starts to age. But then the basics of teaching had not changed much in the last several hundred years and the equipment still worked, so Mrs. Breadstick made do with very few internal complaints about the situation. She was just glad there were still physical schools around to employ her.

Before the Canadian government farmed school funding out to the corporations in exchange for limitless exclusive promotion, they had cut all school funding and forced all students to stay home and learn on-line. There were many acclaimed computer-based school teaching programs and software packages. The government made them available for free, just as long as the parents promised to keep their kids home and out of the public schools. But with the economic down-turn caused by the first Sudanese wars, the government had shut down all of the schools and instated mandatory computer based home education. It was the corporations that had decided to save the public schools.

Having exclusive home schooling was a bad idea, because it led to an increase in the number of cases of Robot Sitting Syndrome. Without the human interaction gained from teachers and fellow students, the humans were increasingly sensitive to the few hours they were being left with the sitting bots, and even older children and teenagers started developing the disease. When one of the heirs to the Jack in the Box fortune developed RSS, Jack stepped forward and put together his proposal to fund public schools.

Jack in the Box funded the renovation and re-opening of the first public schools and it was such a success, with all of the parents wanting to send their kids to Jack in the Box High school, Junior High, and Elementary, and all of the students therefore demanding to be fed Jack in the Box food, that all of the other corporations jumped on board and started taking over the rest of the defunct schools. There was some competition between corporations for the best schools in the best locations at first, but by now the feuding had died down and claims to school districts had been made and settled.

This lesson on the history of the corporation in the Canadian school systems was what Mrs. Breadstick chose to spend our first class going over. She briefly went over our syllabus and what would be required of us at the end of class, but she spent most of the lesson time telling us how wonderful the corporations, including Pizza Hut, were for stepping in and saving the schools. In her mind she complained that Pizza Hut spent a lot of money over the summer on fixing the stupid pizza floors and were considering putting in wall films in the hallway to act as a changeable and updateable mural that could include current pricing, instead of getting her a modern computer, but over all she believed what she was saying about the current situation being good for our education.

When the bell rang, she excused the other kids, but made Scryan and me stay back so that she could talk to us. We both knew that this was going to happen and Scryan had even had a vision of it happening at home yesterday, so we were prepared.

"I understand that you're both special order students, so I'll want you up close to me throughout the school year, but I'll do my best to help you fit in and not call attention to your special requests," Mrs. Breadstick said. Every other phrase she used was pizza related. Special order was the pizza related way of using the politically correct phrase special education.

"Yes Mrs. Breadstick," Scryan said and I nodded.

"I didn't realize you were so tall. I might rearrange the class and put the row with the electronic equipment by the door. That should keep you out of the way so that your head doesn't block the view so much," Mrs. Breadstick continued.

She was talking more to herself than to us, so I did not respond at first. But Mrs. Breadstick just kept going on and on about how tall Scryan was and I noticed him looking down at his shoes and the embarrassment in his thoughts, so I decided it was time to speak up for the first time at school. I turned my cell's translation program on and signed, "Brandon doesn't like it when people point out how tall he is. He thinks it's embarrassing because he's taller than his older brother." We were still supposed to be calling Scryan by his middle name.

"Oh," Mrs. Breadstick said, stopping in her tracks. "Being tall's nothing to be ashamed off. I mean sure you're the tallest in your class, but there are some boys taller than you in the older classes. Is that how you speak Masen?" I nodded. "Well that's wonderful! I thought your cousin was gonna translate for you in class, but you two should go on ahead to your next class and don't worry about a thing, because I'm sure you'll fit right in here at Pizza Hut, where we always have room for special requests."

I nodded and led Scryan out the door, because half of our between period time was already gone and Mrs. Breadstick's next class was already filing in.

'You got through an entire hour without a vision Scry!' I proclaimed as we walked to our next class, math, and sat down.

We did not have assigned seats in this class, but Aiden and Eliza had saved us a pair of seats in the back. I would have sat anywhere other than next to my sister, but they were the only two open seats in the room, so I had no choice. At least I chose the seat further from Eliza and let Scryan sit in front of her; her desk was not touching mine, nor was it within arm's length, so she would have to get up to punch me.

Our teacher started talking almost immediately, because we were late, so our silent conversation was being thought over Mrs. Marinara and her lecture on our math syllabus and the exciting world of math. We should have been paying attention to our teacher, but I wanted to take Scryan's mind off of his height. He had always been big for his age and he was used to humans and other vampires mistaking him for a much older boy, but that did not mean he liked it. Plus, this was my first class of the day with Eliza and I wanted to piss her off. By the end of class she will be furious that Scryan and I spent the entire time thinking to each other and leaving her out of it. And it is not like she could do anything about it without drawing the attention of our teacher, because she was not a telepath, so she would have to sit back and take it. If she did not and caused a stir, she would get grounded for an extended period of time and probably moved to a different math class; especially after what she did to me this morning.

'Yeah, I did. I felt the visions tugging at me, but instead of giving in I kept listening to that boring lecture on the history of corporations in public schools. That was the most boring class I've ever been to. Dad said history was about wars and fighting and stuff, but from what I can tell, we're in for the complete history of the Pizza Hut Corporation this year and they haven't been involved in too many wars,' he thought to me.

'They were involved in all those Sudanese Wars. They were backing the Classics until their operation expanded into Sudanese territory. Who knew the Sudanese would like pizza too?' I projected.

'Yeah, but Pizza Hut in Sudan is a lot different than Pizza Hut here. There's no cheese and it's just sauce, meat, and vegetables on low-fat bread,' Scryan replied in his thoughts.

'But at least it doesn't drip grease like the pizza here. I can see the grease pooling on top of the cheese from the picture on the floor,' I projected, looking down at the cheese pizzaed floor. The math classrooms were all in the Cheese building.

'And in Sudan the pepperoni, chicken, and Canadian bacon are made out of beef, chicken, and pig. Do you know how confusing it is to take Uncle Emmett's test on what is really in Classic food? I still don't understand why pepperoni is made out of ground up crickets and roaches, chicken is made out of beans, and Canadian bacon is fly larvae. And the green things on the works and vegetarian pizzas, what are those anyway?' Scryan thought at me.

Class was moving right along and Mrs. Marinara started her lecture on line segments and what we would need to know for tonight's homework, but instead of tuning in, we kept communicating silently and staring at the front of the room. We were in the second to last row of an overcrowded classroom, so our teacher never noticed.

'Dad said that they were green bell peppers back in his day and that they still use green bell peppers in Sudan, but here they're genetically engineered potato dipped in green food dye. They're supposed to be mildly spicy, just like a real pepper,' I replied. Dad did not actually say it out loud, but rather thought about it during one of the many pizza-based lectures he gave us. 'The red ones are gelatinized corn product dyed red with the spice artificially added in.'

'What is spicy supposed to mean anyway? And how are we supposed to understand that a food is mimicking the flavor of another food when we can't eat either of them? It's not like Ali can just make spicy tasting blood…' he continued to rant in his head.

This class was exceedingly boring, because it was pre-algebra and we had already completed advanced calculus, so neither of us paid attention for the entire hour. Instead, we continued to rant to each other on how annoying human foods were and how pointless it was that we were supposed to learn the difference. We scribbled down our homework assignment in our agenda, made sure we had the right book, and that was all we needed to know for math class.

After that we had technology with Eliza, Lily, and Aiden, which was the one of two classes the five of us had together. I made sure to get there early and ask that the teacher, Mr. Meatball, not seat me next to my horrible sister. I had to use my translator program on my cell again and I had to go into how Eliza had beat me up for talking about spending time with Scryan this morning and some of the other kids who arrived to class early overheard, but in the end it was worth it because Eliza and I were separated to opposite sides of the classroom. Scryan was on my side and Aiden and Lily were on hers. It was great.

We were all more than relieved to have made it through the first three classes of the day and very happy to have our fifteen minute snack period in addition to our regular ten minutes in between classes, even though we would not be able to snack. It was enough that we would be able to get away from the constant smell of humans and the burning in our throats and that we would finally be able to talk openly without having to worry about being overheard by humans.

Yesterday Scryan had had a short vision in which he saw all of us getting together on the roof of the Hawaiian building. The Hawaiian building was where all of the science classrooms and labs were and the roof had a greenhouse for the horticulture students. Horticulture was a class that the most advanced science kids could take as an elective, instead of things like home economics, music, art, Spanish, and pizza cooking class. And that is where we found Allison and Jackson waiting for us. Kair, Kare, Violet, and Adriel took a little longer to find our secret meeting place, but they followed our scent through the maze of pizzas and up the stairs until they found us.

"Good work finding this place Scry," Eliza said coming over to him once she finally arrived.

She was the last to arrive, even though she had been in class with the rest of us, because Mr. Meatball held her after class to talk to her about her behavior. Evidently my story of abuse at my sister's hands did not fall on deaf ears and he was concerned that she would use his classroom to torture me some more, especially because he had a report from my therapist and my parents telling him to watch out for that very possibility. He wanted to move her to a different technology class right then and there, but Eliza had insisted that she would not hurt me, go near me, or speak to me during his class and that false promise satisfied him.

"Actually, Jackson and I found it this morning; Scry just saw us finding it last night. We had science first period and Mrs. Stuffed Crust told us about the greenhouse and some of the other elective science classes and asked if we'd be interested. She even suggested that we stop by during snack or lunch and check it out, so if the humans catch us, we've got an excuse," Allison said.

"Yeah, Mrs. Stuffed Crust started off by giving us all placement tests to make sure we were in the right class, because she's the advanced science teacher. Allison and I aced it," Jackson added.

'You know you're not supposed to be getting the top score in every class,' I chided Allison. And since this was our first chance to have everyone, including the kids in other grades, together at school, I let them all hear what I was projecting.

"Yeah, but Dad says we can with history, math, and science, because he already told the principal that we were geniuses in those subjects. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to pretend that I don't already know everything when it comes to science?" Allison asked me.

"Oh, and if any of you get Mrs. Stuffed Crust, it's pronounced Crust, as in pizza crust. It's that rim of bread around the edge of the pizza. And stuffed ones are filled with cheese," Jackson said. "It took us forever to figure out what her name meant. We kept thinking she was saying Stuff Crushed, which sounds more like a brand of orange soda than something pizza related."

"Well she kept slurring her name too. She has a bit of a lisp," Allison added.

The ten of us talked and hung out up there on top of the Hawaiian building until the bell rang, signaling it was time to get to our third class of the day. We made sure to hold hands with our designated boyfriend or girlfriend as we came down from rooftop; Kair and Kare held each other's hands and did not have boyfriends, but they were counting on being a year younger to save them from the human hormones. Allison and I parted in the quad and I made sure to give her a peck on the cheek to mark my territory before I let her go on to her next class.

On the way to fourth period it seemed like this day would never end and that human school would just go on and on forever. But then I was pleasantly surprised when we got to our physical education class and found that Robby, Draco, Brent, and the rest of the kids from the home were in our class with us. Scryan, Aiden, and I were in an all-boys class, while the girls were in an all-girls class on the other side of the field. So even though I technically had this class with Eliza according to our schedules, we did not actually have this class together.

Physical education had seemed like it would be the worst class of the day, but with our three human friends in it with us, it turned out to be kind of fun. We could not push our bodies anywhere near their limits and had to put in a lot of effort not to hurt the other kids or the equipment and make sure that no one noticed our true strength and speed, but at least we had a group of kids we could talk to while doing so.

We played volleyball today and the six of us got put on the same team together. The other six kids from Robby's home were also in our class, but there were nine of them total, so it worked out perfectly to split into two teams like that. Our team even got to play against the other group home team and we won. To Robby it looked like Aiden, Scryan, and I were all super athletic, but to us it was like playing in slow motion and hitting like babies.

After physical education we had band practice, in the Vegetarian building. This was another one of my classes with Eliza, but she was on the other side of the room playing a different instrument, so she had little opportunity to torment me. And we were all getting to play instruments we had never played before, so it was not too boring and monotonous. I rather liked the flute and the best part was I got to sit right next to Allison while doing so, because she had picked the same instrument as me.

From music we went to lunch and Robby let us sit with him and the other kids from the home. With them surrounding us, not one of us had to take a bite of the pizza, because they all knew we hated pizza. And they acted as a shield, so none of the other kids noticed that we were not eating when they looked over. All they saw was that we started off the meal with pizza on our plates and at the end of the meal it was gone. No one noticed when I pushed my pizza onto Robby's plate, except for Robby, who smiled and thanked me. The home kids had to get the healthy meal prepared by the government, so none of them had pizza on their plates and they were more than happy to throw their apples, authentic wheat-tofu-seaweed sandwiches, and carrot sticks away in favor of eating our pizza for us.

We finished off the day with Science and English classes after lunch, neither of which contained Eliza. Eliza scored low on the science placement exam, so she was not in the advanced class with the rest of us. As for English, Scryan bombed a human-centric essay in the English section, so we were in regular English, while Eliza was in advanced English with Lily and Aiden. Eliza was livid that she had so few classes with her best friend, but I liked it this way.

After English we went home. Well I went to the Whitlock's with Allison, but for the next month, that would be my home. My mom was there to greet me and she had a suitcase full of my things with her. I had already been spending a lot of time at the Whitlock's, but now that it was official that I would not being going home because of Eliza's grounding, my mom was bringing me my things. And the best part was that I would be sharing a room with Allison.

Uncle Jasper did not like me staying in Allison's room at first when my therapist said that I should be separated from Eliza. He had some hang up regarding what human kids our age would do: something rather disturbing, judging from his thoughts. But after a few nights of me staying over and Allison bringing all of her science stuff out into the living room so that she could play with me, Uncle Jasper gave in. We were not going to be sleeping, because we do not sleep, and we had not reached puberty yet, so his fears were completely unfounded and I was allowed in Allison's room as much as I wanted, just like when we were kids on the island.

Robby was absolutely horrible at history and had been put in the remedial history class instead of the regular one. Normally all of the boys from his home had classes together, except for the ones in the remedial classes. Robby did not like the kids from his home in the remedial classes, because they were bullies, so he really wanted to get up into the regular history class with Draco, Brent, Dodge, and Roran. Dodge and Roran were two of the other boys from the home in Robby's room and they ate lunch with us.

During one of our early mentard sessions Robby had asked me to help teach him history, so he could get out of the remedial class. And as his mentor, I agreed and spent a portion of our summer together up in our tree with a history book. He had learned a lot of history from me and we were hoping that it would be enough to get him moved up, but we would have to wait for the results of his placement test to be sure. He had already been tested at the end of the previous school year and failed, but he was asking to be re-tested now.

It was not a sure thing, because the type of history I knew, like wars, vampires, guns, and stuff, was completely different from what Mrs. Breadstick was teaching us here. I was really worried for him after that first class when I realized that they would only be teaching us pizza related history and I had not gone over anything pizza related during our summer lessons, but then the next day he showed up in my history class saying, "Isn't this great? I totally passed that history test yesterday and they changed my schedule this morning!"

The history class that the other boys in the home were taking was full and Robby had asked if they could put him in my history class, which just happened to be at the same time as his old history class, so everything worked out well for him and Scryan and I got another friend in class with us. Mrs. Breadstick moved the shortened row over to the edge of the classroom and put Robby in the seat in front of me, with Scryan in the back, because there was only room for three seats in the shortened row. And so history turned out to be a lot of fun with Scryan and Robby to share it with and I even started helping Robby with his history homework during lunch so that he would not fall behind.

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><p>Author's Note: So what do you think of Pizza Hut Junior High? Please Review (it's my 30th birthday) :)<p> 


	34. Book3 Jasper ch11

Jasper's POV:

My girl's left, but they did not come back right away. There was no set of twins waiting in the fathoms of space-time for their opportunity to spend time with me, like there had been every moment up until now.

"Where are Kare and Kair?" I asked Mariam and Mariel.

"You just saw them leave, didn't'cha?" Mariel asked.

"Yes, but why haven't they come back yet?" I asked.

"Jasper dear, they never come back right away. They only visit us 'bout once a month," Mariam explained kindly.

"They always come right back for me," I explained, getting depressed. "They're supposed to rescue me and bring me back to my own time. I thought we were just making a quick detour here and then we'd be on our way back to the present."

"When exactly is the present for you? You don't seem much older than us," Mariel said.

"I'm from the thirty-third century AD, approximately twenty-four and a half centuries in the future," I answered.

"How can you be from that far in the future if you're my grandson?" Mariam asked.

"I died in eighteen sixty-two, at the age of eighteen. I'll be eighteen forever," I answered.

"Ya said that before, that you're dead, but I don't really understand how that's possible," Mariel replied. "Dead people can't be pregnant with twins."

"Well I'm not really dead, but transforming from human to my kind is so painful it's like dying. We like to think that our human selves died on the date of our transformation and we were reborn into our second lives."

"And how's that work? The transformation?" Mariam asked.

"Mary, you can't possibly be considering this! He just said it was so painful that it was worse than death!" Mariel exclaimed.

"Well you're not the one expected to be dead in ten years, are ya?" Mariam retorted. "If his kind live forever, then it'd be worth the pain."

"I'm not gonna change you, because then you wouldn't be able to give birth to my mother and I wouldn't exist so that I wouldn't be able to go back in time to change you and you wouldn't be changed and then I would exist again. You see, it's a vicious cycle that I'm not gonna start," I explained.

"An' how exactly would one go 'bout transforming?" Mariam asked.

"Mary!" Mariel hissed.

"I'm not gonna tell you the specifics, but you have to be transformed by someone of my species. Normally we transform someone we want to marry, but if not, then the relationship is more like the parent-child relationship."

"Did your wife transform you?" Mariel asked.

"No, a woman named Maria did."

"Did she want you for a husband or for a son?" Mariam asked.

"At first she wanted me as a tool for vengeance, because her husband had been murdered. Then when I pleased her, it became more of a romance, but we never married. Eventually we split up, because we weren't meant to be together and she still loved her dead husband. Then I found Alice and I've been happy ever since."

"How long've you two been together?" Mariel asked.

"The vast majority of that time was with Alice. I was with Maria for less than a century."

"So is your first child already grown then?" Mariam asked.

"No, our children grow very slowly. Our oldest two are almost thirteen hundred years old, but they're 'bout the same maturity as fourteen year old humans. There's a little difference, because our kind are smarter and have the advantage of years, but then my kids aren't even close to going through puberty yet."

"Well fourteen year old humans wouldn't be going through puberty yet either," Mariam replied.

"Actually, puberty in humans kept occurring earlier and earlier. They had to modify their DNA to fix it. They've now got the age of puberty back up to twelve."

"What's DNA?" Mariel asked.

And at the same time, Mariam said, "That's awful! Just how low did it fall to?"

"DNA is a molecule inside us that stores the code that makes us; almost every aspect of us. Identical twins have the same code. If we change the code, we change ourselves, but it's very complicated. And it went down to five, but there was a big press to fix it as soon as it dropped to eight. It took a while and they still don't have it back to the proper age, although there's still some debate over just what the proper age is."

"Well it's seventeen of course!" Mariel exclaimed. "Everyone knows that."

"We both got our chests right on our seventeenth birthday this year," Mariam added, telling more than I ever wanted to know about my grandmother.

"Already in my time the age was sixteen, but a few girls developed earlier. I had a cousin who had a baby at sixteen and I had sex for the first time at sixteen."

"But you were just children!" Mariam exclaimed.

And at the same time, Mariel said, "That's disgusting."

"It was a major problem, because once children were having sex, they were having babies and no one was getting married. Then when they did become adults, they were over the having children thing and didn't want to marry. Then they'd grow old and suddenly want children, so only the children and the grandparents were having children and the adults wanted nothing to do with either. Society almost collapsed."

"How'd they fix it?"

"Well eventually it fixed itself, because all of the backwards people died without leaving children, so the messed up DNA wiped itself out. And the onset of puberty started going back up and they started putting the children on birth control, so that only adults could have children again. And they outlawed people over the age of one hundred fifty reproducing, so now you've got to get sterilized on your one hundred fiftieth birthday. Plus, the current fashion trend for adults includes a child on the hip. Fashion and culture can solve many of the world's problems."

"People are living to be that old?" Mariam asked.

"Mandatory sterilization? How barbaric," Mariel said.

"Yes, humans live far longer now than they used to. The increased lifespans would've caused a big problem with overcrowding the globe, but like I said, all of those people died without having children. The Earth was actually under populated for a time."

"I don't think I wanna be alive for all that," Mariam replied.

"Well that won't happen until long after your times, even if you both live to be a hundred. Just don't tell anyone, because I don't wanna mess up the time-line. I'd love to warn humanity and solve the world's problems before they begin, but we can't mess up what will be or it'll never happen. So you've gotta promise me you won't tell."

"We won't tell, I promise," Mariam replied.

"Promise," Mariel added.

"Now, don't you two have some laundry that needs doing?" I asked, remembering that they had been down at the water washing clothes when they rescued me. "I can come with you and help."

They agreed and so the three of us set off to wash some clothes. With my help, the laundry was done in a matter of minutes, so I carried the wash back to the homestead and helped the twins hang it up on the clothesline that ran between the house and the barn. After that they went to work on their other chores and I butchered the dead cow for them. It was nice to be back on a farm, doing the things I had not done since I was a boy, but mostly I just missed my girls.

A couple days passed, during which I occupied myself with chores around the homestead, before my twins came back. Mariel, Mariam, and Monroe were all surprised to see them back so soon, but I was wondering why it had taken them so long to return.

"Daddy!" Kair and Kare shouted, jumping into my arms the moment Mariam and Mariel pulled them out of the wormhole.

"Where've you two been? I've been worried sick wondering just how long I was gonna have to wait here for you to come back for me!" I said squeezing the girls to me and sending them my love and gratitude.

"Oh, sorry," Kair said.

"We thought you knew that you've gotta stay here until you find our hosts," Kare said.

"Well why didn't we just go straight to that time?" I asked.

"We could've, but then you would've never chosen them. And if you choose the wrong hosts, we'll get stuck in time during the parasitism, because our hosts will fall into wormholes, just like you did. Then we'll die before being able to rescue you," Kair answered.

"So I've gotta stay?" I asked, resigning myself to my fate. I wanted to get back to my wife and children, but I did not want to risk my twins' lives.

"Yes," Kare replied.

"Um, what's a host?" Mariam asked.

"It's nothing really, just part of the pregnancy," I answered, trying to be vague and emotionally urging her to drop it.

"Is that how men get pregnant?" Mariel asked, not dropping it.

"Yes, that's part of it."

"And how does that work?" Mariam asked, her curiosity insatiable.

"It's complicated," I said hoping that they still might drop it, but when they did not, I continued. "Our kind can't get pregnant the normal way. We can try for centuries, millennia even, and not have a baby. We have to be pared with a human for each baby, because we don't have any blood of our own. Everyday we transfer small amounts of blood from the human to the developing baby, but the human survives and lives a perfectly normal life. We call the human the host."

"Is it like leaching?" Mariel asked.

"Yes, but we don't use leaches anymore. We have more sanitary means of withdrawing blood without harming people. In fact, it's used in medicine all of the time."

"That doesn't sound so bad, but if you're pregnant, why haven't you found a host already?" Mariam asked.

"Well I'm not very pregnant and the hosts are only needed after a certain time. Right now the babies and growing off of the animal blood I drink. If they don't get human blood, and not through me, but transfused straight to them, then they'll die and I'll miscarry."

"So how long do you have until that time? I love those girls and I'll give my blood to save them if I hafta," Mariam said.

"I've got another twenty years before then."

"Twenty years? You're gonna be pregnant for twenty years?" Mariel asked.

"The entire process takes two hundred years. I'm only eighty years in and they don't need the blood until the half-way point."

"Wow! I wonder what Bethany'll say when she hears you've been pregnant for eighty years already… She was complaining 'bout the nine months it took to make Monty," Mariel said.

"You can't tell her. You can't tell anyone; you promised."

"Okay, but eighty years? And we hafta keep it to ourselves?" Mariel asked.

"Yes, you most certainly do have to keep it to yourselves. No one can know what you know, because it's against the laws of my kind to tell humans our secrets. If this gets out, our police would come and kill you and everyone else who knows," I warned, just now realizing that the Volturi were still very much a threat in this time. Sure I had wanted to protect the secret before, but with this realization, that mission just became a lot more urgent. If I could go back in time, I would have found a way to avoid their questions to keep them safe. I suddenly found myself wishing I was back in my wormhole and I never thought I would wish for that.

"But you'd protect us," Mariam insisted.

"I'd try, but there are lots of them and only one of me. They'd over power me and kill us all."

"We won't say a word, just like we promised," Mariam replied.

"I won't tell neither, but if you've got another twenty years before you hafta find this host, then what're you so worried about?" Mariel asked.

"I just wanted to get home to my own time already. I miss my other four kids and my wife. I don't even know how long it's been since I've been gone."

"Mommy said you left her for fifteen years," Kare said, speaking up for the first time in several minutes.

"Fifteen years? I have to wait here for fifteen years to find your hosts?"

"Yes," Kair answered.

"Why can't you just tell me and I grab them and we run them through the wormhole back to the present? I know there's no air in there, but they can hold their breaths and I'll run super quickly."

"One of them isn't born yet. Besides, you told us not to listen to you and to leave you back with Nana Mariam," Kare insisted.

"I'm beginning to dislike my future self."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: The hybrids will be coming for a visit next chapter! There is a new hybrid on the way, because someone forgot to take his birthcontrol…<p>

In other news: today is my 30th birthday! I would like reviews for my birthday this year!


	35. Book2 Masen ch11

Masen's POV:

Even though I was now living at the Whitlocks' house, my parents did insist on seeing me on occasion. They were supposed to come visit me at the Whitlocks' and leave Eliza behind with Grandma Esme or something, but during our visit this morning, Mom started crying. It was a perfectly fine sunny fall morning, but no, Mom was too busy obsessing over losing her baby boy to enjoy it. And since Dad does whatever makes Mom happy, he insisted that I spend the day with them.

Grandma Esme was away this weekend and my dad was staying home to watch Eliza, so he ended up pawning her off on Uncle Jasper, even though she was supposed to be grounded. Her grounding included not seeing or playing with the Whitlock kids, especially Scryan, but when do my parents ever stick to a punishment? There was some discussion about her staying grounded at the Whitlock house and with Uncle Jasper in charge, it might actually happen.

"Don't worry, I'll enforce the grounding; I'm sure Eliza will be perfectly miserable here. But, you two owe me and Alice. Not only have we practically adopted Masen, but groundings bring down the ambience of the whole house," Uncle Jasper said, his happiness level already dipping down just from considering it.

"What do you want?" my mom asked. Between the six kids, the parity, and helping out with me and Eliza, Mom felt sympathy for Uncle Jasper. Although she thought that the kids misbehaving would be the source of the problems around here, while Uncle Jasper was more worried about having enough time to cuddle with my aunt.

"Give me and Alice all of your personal days for the next six months. I know you don't use them anyway," he replied, thinking that my parents wasted their personal time together.

Mom looked to Dad, who had arrived a few minutes prior with Eliza. Dad thought for a moment about said personal days and whether they could bear to part with them. He went over memories of his last few days alone with Mom, in which they apparently spent the entire time playing scrabble and hunting deer. Maybe Eliza could just start playing scrabble with them; now that would be a good punishment for her.

The other adults always make such a big deal about their personal days and not wanting us kids to know what goes on, but I do not see why; who cares if they like to play board games alone? And why was Uncle Jasper singing that song over and over in his head and trying not to think about kissing Aunt Alice? Grown-ups are weird.

Dad looked to Mom, leaving the decision to her. "Fine, you can have them. Just make sure that Eliza doesn't enjoy this," Mom answered.

Right when we were about to leave, Scryan ran in and announced, "Whatever is going on, don't bring it back here."

"Why? What's going to happen?" my dad asked, when Scryan's thoughts did not reveal any additional information on the warning.

"I wouldn't know. _I _can't see," Scryan sneered, before turning around and running upstairs.

"I second that: if my boy can't see 'em, they shouldn't be coming to my house," Uncle Jasper added, clearly thinking that my parents were up to something hybrid related. Now that he can see human, a hole in Scryan's visions could only mean a hybrid was coming. And since my sister was a hybrid, she was the most likely source of the problem. Uncle Jasper did not mind Nessie, in fact he loved her, but he did not want her at his house and upsetting his psychics.

"Fine. Whoever's coming, we won't bring them here," Dad replied, before turning to go.

And so that is how I ended up back with my parents and not playing quidditch with the other kids, on a perfectly sunny Saturday. Mom spent the morning fawning over me and hugging me. She made me tell her every single little detail about school and speech therapy. Then she wanted to hear me practice my sounds and the list of short words I had learned so far. It was all very boring and I was more than pleased when the phone rang with a call from Nessie; surely she would refocus Mom's parental energies. And given Scryan's warning earlier, she might even want to stop by for a visit soon.

"Hello Nessie sweetie, how are you?" Dad asked when he picked up the phone.

I could hear Nessie's voice through Dad's mind, so I knew she returned his pleasantries and asked to be put on speaker phone, in order to talk to Mom too. And that is exactly what Dad did, saying, "I'm putting her on speaker phone," for Mom's benefit.

"Mom, Dad," Nessie began.

"Masen's here too," Mom added quickly, interrupting her.

"Oh hi Masen," Nessie replied.

I was waiting for her to continue, but she did not, and Mom and Dad just kept looking at me and expecting me to reply. 'It is only one syllable Masen and it is on that list of words you just read to your mother,' Dad thought.

Fine, whatever. They were getting way too into this talking thing, but it _was_ only one syllable and it _would_ make Mom happy. "Hi," I said. My voice warbled even more than normal, because the audience made me nervous.

"Wow, was that Masen?" Nessie asked.

"Yes, it sure was," Dad replied, sounding way too happy.

"Speech therapy must be really paying off. You sound wonderful Masen," Nessie replied. I could not tell if she was lying over the phone, but she was at least exaggerating.

"We're all so very proud of him," Mom added. Mom was not lying, but was over enthusiastic, like she always was.

"Yes we are," Dad said. "So what's the news in your neck of the woods? Is anything interesting happening in La Push?"

"As a matter of fact, that's what I called to talk to you about. I'm pregnant," Nessie answered.

"What?" Dad asked, hoping that he had misheard. It was not that he had a problem with her having more children; it was just that this was not a good time for him with us starting school. We always go to the reservation for a few years every time my sister has a baby and we could not go now and go to school. School would have to give, because family comes first.

"That's wonderful sweetheart, but I thought we agreed you and Jacob were going to wait a few more years, so that Eliza and Masen could go to human school with the others?" Mom asked.

"Well yeah, that was the plan. Sorry Mom," Nessie replied.

"We shouldn't talk about this in front of Masen. This is supposed to be his day to have all of our attention to himself anyway; why don't you take this call in the other room and sort it out?" Mom asked Dad.

Dad nodded, took the phone off of speaker, and went upstairs and to the other side of the house. His voice was a bit muffled, but I could still make out his thoughts just fine. I was trying to listen in on their conversation when Mom decided it was time for more mother-son bonding. We went on a run together, but it was way worse than running with Dad, because Mom is exceedingly slow. She must be one of the slowest, oldest, vampires there is. I mean she is not turning to dust before my very eyes like the Romanians, but she acts older and runs slower.

By the time Mom and I got back from our practically human paced run, Dad was already off of the phone and waiting by the front door to tell us the solution. "We have it all worked out: Nessie is coming here," Dad announced.

"By herself?" Mom asked.

"No, Link and Alex are coming with her. Jacob is wrapping things up in the Capitol, but when he finishes handing his duties off, he'll join the rest of them. It will be a bit crowded here, but Nessie, Jacob, and the new baby can take Masen's old room now that he's not living here anymore. Eliza can move in with us and the boys can have her room. It will just be for a year or two, so that the kids can finish school and Masen can keep up his speech therapy," Dad said.

'Really, I don't mind sacrificing speech therapy. Nessie will be more comfortable on the reservation; we should go there,' I telepathed to Dad and then repeated the message for Mom when she threw her shield.

"No, you need speech therapy Masen," Mom replied.

"Nessie said that she'll be happy to come here. It's the least she could do after she and Jacob changed plans so suddenly," Dad said, but he was thinking back to his earlier conversation with my sister.

Apparently this newest baby was not planned and was an accident caused by Jacob's failure to take his birth control. 'I just don't understand that mutt. He was on it for over a thousand years and never complained once, but then he gets off it and doesn't want to go back on, because it makes him feel weird?' Dad thought. But then he noticed me watching him, realized I was listening in, and cut it short. He switched to making arrangements for our visiting houseguests instead.

"Great! When are they coming?" Mom asked.

"They are leaving today, but we don't have all our medical equipment down here. I'm going to run up to Cullen Island this afternoon and meet them there; Vladimir is already picking them up in the helicopter. I want to get a cat scan of the baby and give Nessie a check-up, before bringing them here," Dad answered, thinking that he was going to leave me with Mom, alone, for the rest of my parental torture.

"That's a good idea. Go ahead, Masen and I'll be fine."

"No," I said out loud, both to emphasize my point and to show them that I was trying, meaning that they should listen to me. 'We should all go.'

The last thing I wanted was to be left at home with Mom fawning all over me like a baby. Mom has to be the most boring vampire in existence. Her idea of a good time is reading a book. Just my luck and she will want to help me with my homework or invite my "human friends" over to play. Once I caught her thinking about taking me and Eliza to a place called Happy Lucky Food where Classic children run around screaming all day covered in teriyaki sauce. Luckily Eliza decided she would eat the Classics if Mom tried, which caused Aunt Alice to have a vision and tell Mom not to take us. But who knows what other awful ideas Mom will have if left up to her own devices? At least if we went with Dad, she would be too busy with my sister and two nephews to obsess over me.

"It is just going to be a bunch of medical tests and then I'm coming right back home Masen," Dad replied.

"Wouldn't you rather stay here with me, sweetie? We could play Pictionary," Mom suggested.

'I'd rather go home. It's not that far and the run will be nice. And I can play with Link and Alex while you two concentrate on Nessie. Think about how she feels: she'll want her Mommy,' I replied, playing on my mom's sympathies.

This time Mom looked at Dad and Dad gave in. "Alright, but go get your fur coat and your wetsuit, because we are running and swimming the entire way."

I nodded happily and that is how I ended up back on Cullen Island by night fall. Some of the bodies of water we passed through were bitterly cold, but I had my wetsuit, so the swim was actually kind of nice and refreshing. The run would have been impossibly cold if I was meant to do it in my wetsuit, but Mom packed a change of clothes, including my thick fur coat, in my waterproof backpack. So every time we came to a body of water we had to stop and change, but when we got to the other side, I still had nice dry clothes to wear.

Nessie, Link, Alex, and Vladimir reached the island before we did; but then Dad and I had to go really slow to keep pace with Mom. Dad even stopped for ten minutes and made me run ahead with Mom when Aunt Alice called to complain about the holes in her vision; she seemed more irritable than normal and made Dad promise to keep the hybrids off of the Whitlock side of the Manitoba compound. It only took him about a minute to catch back up to us, but I missed most of the conversation, due to the distance.

Vladimir left as soon as we arrived, saying he had a nomad friend in the area he wanted to catch up with. Mom and Dad took Nessie into the clinic, which left me with Alex and Link. They both looked like adults; they even looked older than Mom and Dad. But, I knew from past experience that they were both children at heart. Besides, they were both way younger than me.

'Wanna play soccer?' I asked, knowing that we had left some things, including a soccer ball, here when we moved.

"Yeah!" Alex answered immediately. He was the youngest.

"I guess," Link replied, but he was thinking, 'There's nothing else to do but wait.

They followed me to the old school house, where the balls were kept, but all the while Link kept up a depressing monologue in his head. He was worried about his mother being pregnant. He was worried about his father being in Washington DC. He was worried about his wife, Anaea, who he had left behind in La Push to be with his mom. Anaea was Leah's oldest daughter and she could take care of herself, but Link was upset over a fight they had had when he left. He wanted her to come with him, but there would not be enough room for her at our new compound. He thought they would make do in the close quarters, but she refused and stayed in La Push.

Link was thinking, 'I just need to stay with Mom until Dad gets back and then I can go home and patch everything up with Anaea. She'll understand.' Obviously, he was not going to be much fun tonight. When did he become so boring?

'Link, why don't you work on lighting up the field while Alex and I play?' I asked. I would have just flipped the light switch myself, but one of the electrical wires was clearly down and underneath a fallen tree. Link, being an adult and the only one present who could fly, was the perfect candidate to fix it.

"Okay, but you two should wait until I get that wire fixed. It's getting dark," Link replied.

'Aren't you shifters supposed to have super night-vision?' I asked, kicking the ball to Alex. He was a tracker, but we had never played in the dark before, so I was not sure if that applied only to sentient creatures or to balls too.

"Yeah, but Link really isn't that great of a flyer. Archaeopteryxes can fly, but they're not aerodynamic enough or something, because he just gets buffeted around in the wind. He probably doesn't want our game distracting him." Alex caught the ball with his foot and easily sent it back to me while he spoke. When I kicked it to him the second time, he added, "But he'll just have to deal," and took off as fast as he could towards my goal.

Alex is faster than my mom, but he was no match for me; he is not even a match for Leah. So I easily moved into position to block him and sent the ball flying back towards his end.

"Yeah, and Alex, your axolotl is sooo useful. What would you do, swim up the power pole?" Link asked as he removed his clothes in preparation for turning into his bright red feathered form.

"No, but that's what I've got you for, dearest older brother," Alex replied, retrieving the ball after my goal, while I watched Link soar up into the sky and land on the pole in question, to get a better look.

We played for fifteen minutes before Link pulled the wires out from under the tree, patched in new wires, cleaned up the tree, turned back into a human, put his clothes back on, and turned on the lights. I thought that he might join our game then, but he had other things on his mind.

"Masen, little buddy, can you hear what's going on with my mom from here?" Link asked.

Link was taller than me, but that was no reason to call me such an atrocious nickname. I was beginning to not like my oldest nephew, but I answered his question anyway, 'Yeah. Everything's fine, except for your baby brother has been in his animal form the entire time. My parents are just debating what that form is, exactly. He's clearly some sort of ungulate, because of the hooves, but Dad thinks he looks like a pig and Mom thinks he looks more like a llama. Your Mom is guessing a goat.'

"Grandpa Edward thinks my baby brother looks like a pig?" Alex asked incredulously. 'At least it's another boy.'

"Just what does the baby look like?" Link asked, not quite understanding the confusion.

'Well, like I said, he has cloven hooves on all for legs. He's not tall enough to be something like a giraffe, but he's probably too tall to be a pig or a goat. He's too thin to be a calf, but he looks kinda round and chubby like a baby pig,' I telepathed, looking at the cat scan through my dad's eyes.

"At least it's not another chimpanzee and won't be flying around above my head," Alex replied, referring to Seth's latest kid, who was in fact a Bonobo named Bianca. The swinging around on everything was not so bad, but she could pour fire from her fingertips, which was really dangerous. She caught herself on fire a bunch of times when she was a baby, explaining why her mom was always covering her in fire-proofing compounds and kept a fire extinguisher in her diaper bag. And why my parents did not want us hanging out or playing with her. All of the other hybrids we were encouraged to play with, but the youngest one just had to be combustible.

"Does he have horns?" Link asked.

'Why would a baby have horns?' I asked wondering what they were teaching the kids on the reservation.

Then I remembered that Link was only a kid for a couple of years and barely went to school. Mostly he was home schooled by my sister, but not even that lasted for very long for the hybrids. So when Alex stopped laughing at Link's stupidity, I focused on getting them back on track and playing soccer with me. We played for a few more hours and Link even joined in to help out his brother, who was losing terribly. Link cheated horribly, always turning into an archaeopteryx whenever he got the ball and flying it out of our reach, before kicking it into my goal. And since his archaeopteryx was smaller than his human form, he could just fly out of his clothes without tearing them, and slip back into them after scoring the goal. But at least he was planning on going back to La Push soon and then it would just be Alex to play with.

It was well past midnight before my parents finished up with my oldest sister and decided it was time to leave. The six of us took the helicopter back to Manitoba, leaving Vladimir behind; he would find his own way back, wherever he had gone off to. Mom stayed at the house to get the hybrids settled in, while Dad took me over to the Whitlock house to trade me for Eliza. We went alone so as not to unnerve anymore psychics.

Aunt Alice was standing outside her front door, tapping her foot when we arrived. "You're late," she said.

Uncle Jasper had only agreed to switch Eliza for one day, and it was early Sunday morning, so we were indeed late. But Aunt Alice's thoughts seemed frantic, and that was not from being late.

"Sorry Alice, Nessie's visit just came up. Aren't you the least bit happy that I'm getting another grandson?" Dad asked, somewhat peeved that she had not congratulated him yet and had called to lecture him earlier about not bringing my sister or any of the other hybrids near her house.

Aunt Alice did not answer him, but she did open the door and lead us inside. Eliza was already waiting on the couch in the living room. "Allison, hurry up," Aunt Alice called up the stairs.

"Alice, wait, not today. Bella and I agreed to give you our personal days, but we aren't scheduled until next week and we need today to get Nessie and the boys settled," my dad said and Allison quietly slid down the banister with a backpack slung across each shoulder. She landed silently and waited politely at the foot of the stairs for the adults to finish talking.

"Yes today and no one better lay a paw, claw, or flipper on my kid when she's with you," she replied thinking about the drama that had transpired in the Whitlock house while I was gone. And she was blaming my parents and the hybrids for obscuring her and Scryan's visions and preventing them from knowing about it in advance, although they did begin to see something as soon as my parents agreed not to bring anyone by the house.

Apparently Uncle Jasper was having chest pains, because the egg-sac was only meant to house one egg and his contained two rapidly growing eggs. Grandpa Carlisle had already endoscoped him, revealing that the eggs were lined up horizontally inside the egg-sac, parallel with his chest, and were straining the limits of the small organ. And so Uncle Jasper was currently upstairs resting, while the other three Whitlock kids were at the Hale's house.

"That can't be. Is he alright? We were just here this morning and he was fine," my dad said as he searched frantically for Uncle Jasper's thoughts.

Uncle Jasper was not thinking much; he was concentrating on the feeling of peace and since he was not currently in pain, there was nothing to be gained from sifting through his every thought. Allison, however, was much more revealing. She was thinking about the two backpacks she had packed, one for her and one for me, because we were both heading back to my parents' house, or at the very least into the hybrid zone. She did not know what to prepare for, because neither Scryan nor her mom could see, so she had over-packed. We were only going to be gone for one day and we definitely would not need three outfits each and we probably would not need so many books either.

"He'll be fine. We just need to massage the domum until the eggs flip to the vertical position. There's more room vertically," Aunt Alice replied to my dad's questioning. Domum was another of Jackson's ancient vampire terms and it meant egg-sac.

Aunt Alice was thinking that there was a risk of one or both eggs falling out of the pouch, into his stomach, especially as the eggs grow. But the stomach is a nourishing place for eggs, so that should be fine. The only thing was that stomach-eggs had an increased risk of pre-term disgorgement, which could lead to miscarriage, but as long as he did not vomit in the next twenty years or so, that would not be an issue.

"Is Carlisle coming back over to help you? I could leave the kids with Bella and come back to help," Dad suggested, despite the fact that we had all of the guests to deal with.

"He's standing by. We're going to try to see if I can do it myself," she replied thinking about the fact that my uncle was uncomfortable with the thought of someone else touching him there. 'He barely even lets me put my hand on his chest right now.'

"Alright," my dad replied, for the first time beginning to think about the fact that he was not going to be picking one kid up and dropping one off, but leaving with all three of us. 'And we have the three house guests too. Our house is going to be over-flowing.'

"Emmett and Rosalie already have seven kids at their house; they can't take any more. Esme's still with her two humans, but Carlisle called her, so she'll be coming back early," Aunt Alice said, anticipating what my dad was about to say. 'And we wouldn't even have this problem if _you_ hadn't blocked my foresight with your ridiculous idea about bringing those hybrids over to say hi. Next time do us all a favor and wait for us to come to you.'

"Call me if you change your mind." A moment later when the look on my aunt's face confirmed that she would not be changing her mind, Dad added, "Come on kids, let's get going."

Eliza skipped out the door, while I took my bag from Allison, before taking her hand and following my sister out the door. During our run home, Dad thought about the fact that Eliza and I were supposed to be separated from each other, but with seven children already with my Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rosalie, there was nowhere else for Allison and me to go. But then we arrived home and he did not have time to think about that again, because Mom needed help setting up the beds.

My parents had the only bed in the house in their room, but Mom, Alex, and Link had already moved it into my old room for Nessie. But that still left Alex and Link and they were already getting tired, because it was passed their bedtime. So Mom had borrowed two beds from my grandparents' house and was setting them up in Eliza's room. Grandma Esme and Grandpa Carlisle adopted a pair of hosts, the same hosts that grandma Esme was currently visiting, that stay over on occasion, so they happened to have a pair of twin beds in their house. And since Eliza was behaving civilly towards me for once, she got let off of her grounding for the day; not that she was ever punished that much.

By morning all of the hybrids were asleep and calm had been restored to the Swan house. Aunt Alice called to say that everything went fine with Uncle Jasper and the eggs and he was no longer in pain. They spent the rest of the day alone together, but Allison and I were back at the Whitlock house with the rest of the kids by the wee hours of Monday morning, with plenty of time to do our homework and get ready for school.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Nessie and a few of the hybrids will be moving in, so we'll get to see a little bit of what the hybrids are like. Any guesses what animal the new baby will be?<p>

Please review!


	36. Book3 Jasper ch12

Jasper's POV:

Once again Kair and Kare left and I was alone with my human family. I spent my nights out in the wilderness, gorging on whatever wildlife I could find and making up for all of that lost time being trapped inside that wormhole. During the day the animals would be let out to roam the pasture and I would take over the barn, for Mariam and Mariel's sakes, because they felt better if there was a roof over my head. They were not aware of my night time activities and were under the impression that I slept in the barn with the animals at night.

I had been allowed inside the house and even met my great grandmother, Ma Jackson, along with Monroe's wife Bethany and their son Monty. But Monroe was uncomfortable with me being so close to his family, so I kept my distance and tried to stay out of the house. Monroe was a bit odd, because he liked me and had no problems asking me to come along and help him with his chores, but he did not trust me around his wife and kid. I was the last person to blame him, because I would not trust me around my own wife and kid if they were human, so I did not begrudge him his one request. Therefore I avoided Bethany and Monty like the plague.

Ma Jackson spent most of her time helping her daughter-in-law out with the new baby, but we did have the occasional chat. She would come out to milk the cows every morning and we would talk. Well cow really, because they only had one cow at the moment with milk, although they did have a second one with calf. And since she thought I was living in the barn, I would invariably make an appearance. Animals hate my kind, but they love me, and the two opposing forces combined to produce unusually calm and sleepy cows, horses, sheep, and chickens.

All in all I would say I got along well so close to all of those animals. Except their roster, George, did not like me and he would crow his little head off every morning when I would slip into the barn to await Ma Jackson's visit. But then rosters screeching cock-a-doodle-doo in the morning was not exactly out of the ordinary for these parts, so the humans did not notice. I would not have noticed if I had not been able to feel the malice the bird directed at me whenever he looked at me; it was as if he saw me as a rival male, but instead of trying to fight me, he was content to crow his little lungs out in complaint.

And so surrounded by the sounds of cow milking and a belligerent roster, Ma Jackson and I would talk. She was a sweat old lady and nothing like the old racist wind-bag of a great grandmother that I had known in my human life. Ma Jackson died of old age long before I was born, so it was Nana Whitlock that I had grown up knowing. If I had known that all old people were not as awful as Nana Whitlock I might have spent more time getting to know one before.

I did not remember Nana Whitlock or my grandmother, Grandma Whitlock, on my own and neither of them had been alive in Jeremiah's time, but Jackson had told me about them. He used to draw me sketches of my childhood and tell me stories about my family members, like that Nana Whitlock always called me Billy or Billy-Bob, and not just because she could not be bothered to learn my name. Her daughter-in-law, Grandma Whitlock, always called me Joe, because she was senile and thought all of her male grandsons were my older brother Joseph, but Nana Whitlock, her mother-in-law, was not senile and knew perfectly well who I was. She just did not like the name Jasper and thought my mother should have named me William instead, so she called me Billy.

Needless to say Nana Whitlock was as stubborn as a mule and as bad tempered as one too, but Ma Jackson was her polar opposite. Ma Jackson was kind and motherly and always asked me if I was well fed, and not because she was worried about her safety, but because she was genuinely concerned about me. She did not know about my special diet or that I was in para with the twins; she just liked to feed everyone and I never showed up at the table like the rest of her family. And to her, I was family even though she did not know that she was my great grandmother and thought that I was just a boarder that Monroe had picked up.

Ma Jackson and the rest of the townsfolk were told that I was from Galveston and had lost my horse out in the woods near their homestead. Monroe had supposedly found me and offered that I could stay in the barn, in exchange for helping out around the place, until I got back on my feet. Getting back on my feet would mean earning enough money to buy another horse to ride back to Galveston, which I had no plans on doing, so eventually people will begin to wonder why I am still here. But I will cross that road when I get to it and for now it is sufficient to pretend.

"I'm makin' a nice pot roast t'night with carrots and taters and all of the fixin's; ya should stop in," Ma Jackson told me while she milked the cow.

"That's real nice of ya and I greatly appreciate the offer Ma'am, but I couldn't impose like that," I said, running out of excuses as to why I would not eat this old lady's cooking.

"Nonesense! You're one of the fam'ly now!" she insisted.

"Again, that really warms my heart that you'd think so, but I'm fine out here, honest. I've got this wonderful hay bed and everything else I could need."

"'Cept a warm meal."

"I've been living out in the wilderness a long time now, I'm not used to all these amenities. I was on my way back home to Galveston, but I left home years ago when I was just sixteen. I've been out on the trail hunting all of these years and while I did have a little cabin with the wife and youngin's, it was not nearly as civilized as this. I'm used to livin' off the land and going out hunting for my dinner every evening," I lied.

"Surely that wife of yours cooked that game for ya," she countered.

"She did, but so do I. I make a nice little fire out in the woods and roast me up fish or wild fowl or gator, but I'm not used to eatin' at a table and I'm 'fraid to admit it, but I plumb forgot all my table manners."

"Well ya best relearn 'em quick if you're headed to see your ma. And there ain't no better time than tonight with my roast," she said, finishing with the cow.

"Has anyone ever told you how beautiful those brown eyes of yours are?" I asked, trying to distract her with flattery. Ma Jackson, unlike the rest of the Jackson bunch, had light brown hair with more grey in it than brown and medium brown eyes. Mariel and Mariam had the same brown eyes, but not the brown hair. And Monroe was fairer, with honey hair, but hazel eyes. Ma Jackson told me once that Monroe was the spitting image of his father.

"Why yes, my late husband used to tell me that all the time."

"Would you do me the honor of dancing with me?" I asked, sharing my false enthusiasm. I was not really in the mood to dance, but I thought that a dance would clear her mind and get me out of eating human food. I could eat it, but then it would have to come back up, and that was the last thing I felt like doing right now, not to mention that I was worried it would be dangerous for the eggs I was carrying. My eggs would be fine as long as they did not come back up with the food, but I did not want to risk it and be forced to re-swallow them.

Ma Jackson ducked her head shyly, so I took her hand and lead her for a slow waltz around the barn, before sending her back inside with her milk. I let all of the animals out and found Mariam and Mariel on the porch, mending clothes, while Monroe was off to the side of the house chopping wood. I went to join my grandmother and her sister and picked up a needle, thread, and a torn sock.

I had spent all of thirty seconds mending and had finished only two socks when Monroe looked up from his wood cutting and asked, "Hey Jasper, why don't'cha come over here and help me with all this wood?"

I did not particularly want to cut wood, especially because it might disturb the humans when they realize how much faster and easier the task was for me, but I agreed. I set down the mending and took up the ax, and three minutes later I had split all of the blocks into manageable logs.

"Wow! I ain't never seen no one chop wood that quick!" Monroe exclaimed. "There goes my plans for the day. The only thing I've got left to do is go into town. Would'ja like to go with me?"

"No, I'd rather stay here," I said, dreading contact with additional humans. I was getting used to the smell of the Jackson family, but I was not in the mood to challenge myself with strangers. Plus the sun was out, as always, and although the Jacksons seemed used to sparkly people, I doubted the townsfolk would be. "But there is something I'd greatly appreciate if you'd pick up for me."

"What's that?"

"I'd like a new pocket watch. Mine hasn't worked since I fell into that wormhole. I don't have any money, but I did catch a gator last night. I was hoping you might be able to trade the skin and meat for a watch," I answered.

"Lead the way."

I lead Monroe around back to where I had left the remains of the alligator I had drunk last night. Alligator was almost as disgusting as bird, but they were the largest and easiest prey in the area and their leather hides could fetch a fair price, because alligator skin cowboy boots were highly prized. Not many people would eat alligator meat around here, but it was still used to feed slaves and as fishing bait. So the meat would not sell for much, but it would sell.

"Wow! When did'ja do all this?" he asked, stepping up to the alligator skin and touching the scales.

"This morning before y'all woke up. If I load it into the wagon, do you think you could sell it?"

"I reckon I could."

"Do you reckon it'll be enough for a watch?"

"The meat won't be, but this skin is perfect. I reckon it alone'll get'cha the watch. What kind did'ja want?"

"I don't much care for how fancy it is, just as long as it's accurate."

"And you're sure you don't wanna come into town with me and pick it yourself?"

"No offense, but you humans smell awful strong. I'd rather not have to smell any more than necessary, if you know what I mean."

"We smell strong as in bad or as in tasty?" he asked with a spike of fear.

"Tasty," I answered and he gulped. "You don't have to be worried, because I'm a carnivore, not a cannibal. I haven't touched a human in the last thirteen hundred years. I'd just rather not be tempted."

"Right," he said with apprehension. "Well I'll hitch up the wagon and you load it."

I had the wagon loaded before he had the horse hitched, so I went back to helping Mariam and Mariel with the mending. Then I helped them prepare hot water for a bath, which was not as simple as turning on the tap. I brought the young ladies bucket after bucket of water and they boiled it in a large cauldron. The whole process took half the day and Monroe was back with my watch before all of the women-folk had bathed.

"Jasper, give me a hand with the supplies," Monroe said pulling the horse and wagon into the barn.

I helped him unload the wagon and when we were done, he handed me the watch and said, "That skin fetched a mighty fine price so I was able to get a gold watch for ya. Just what did'ja want one for anyways? You don't seem the type that'd need one."

"Well I can tell the time by the position of the sun in the sky, same as anyone, but I wanted to time my twins," I said, examining the watch. It was indeed quite fancy and on a long gold chain.

"Time them at what?"

"I want to know how long they stay with me during their visits. I know it's at least an hour and it can't be more than three hours, but I haven't been able to time them to the minutes yet."

"I have: those two stay two hours every time," Monroe replied, holding up his own beaten up brass pocket watch.

"Thanks!" I said, already trying to calculate in my head how long I had been gone if each visit was equivalent to two hours in the real world.

"Once I got down to the store and started askin' 'bout watches, John started askin' me 'bout why I didn't just bring in the old one so he could fix it up. He's mighty handy with 'em, so it'd be safe enough."

"I don't doubt his skill, but my watch if from the future. Our technology's different."

"Pocket watches ain't changed much."

"They will soon," I said pulling out my dead cell phone and showing him the tiny thin rectangular piece of clear plastic film that housed the nanocomputer, three-dimensional projector, speaker, microphone, Wi-Fi, video camera and everything else necessary to tell time in the thirty-fourth century.

The entire contraption was only a square centimeter in total area and stuck to the skin with its adhesive surface. The current fashion was to stick them to your right cheek and set them to flash tiny three-dimensional blue-tinted pictures of yourself onto your face with a slight glittery effect, but I was a fan of the old-fashioned application to the back on the hand, although Alice still liked to wear hers on her ear and flash three-dimensional earrings. Scryan liked to wear his on his forehead and have it flash images of Komodo Dragons, but that was nothing compared to what the boys in his junior high school class were doing. Call me old-fashioned, but I will never understand why it became socially acceptable to attach your phone to your crotch and project three dimensional images of your own genitalia, because it completely defeats the purpose of wearing clothes.

"Where're the gears and hands?"

"My point exactly: there are none."

"Then how's it work?"

"It's electronic, not mechanical. But Edison hasn't even invented electricity yet."

"Whose's Edison and what's electricity?"

"Edison is a famous human scientist who changes the world. Everything'll be more convenient with his electricity."

"How's it work?"

"Well there are some things you have to understand first, like that matter is made up of atoms, not the four elements of fire, water, air, and earth."

"What're atoms?"

"Particles of matter that are so small we can't see them. But everything is made up of them and they are in turn made up of smaller particles which are made up of smaller particles."

"And those are made up of particles that are smaller still?"

"No, two levels down from atoms is the absolute smallest unit of matter. But atoms are made out of three types of smaller particles. One type is neutral in charge and just adds weight, or mass. That one is mixed in with one that is almost identical, but has a positive charge, like magnets. And then very tiny almost massless particles with a negative charge whiz around this ball of positive and neutral. The negative particles can come loose and travel through metal and that creates electricity that drives all our modern inventions."

"Oh, then maybe John won't be able to fix it," Monroe concluded.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: What would you do with a cellphone patch? Personally, I'm allergic to adhesive, so I'd be allergic and have to put it on my clothes…<p> 


	37. Book2 Masen ch12

Masen's POV:

Nessie had her baby a few weeks later. White Cloud was a boy camel, but despite the name, his white fur was not all that fluffy. It was a name Jackson had seen in a vision of the first hybrid shifters; White Cloud was the human father of the first hybrid and it was the first story Jackson had ever told the hybrids. Nessie loved the name and the story and decided to honor the human who had taken a risk and changed shifter society permanently. And so my third nephew was named after a weather phenomenon.

White Cloud was very small for a baby camel, but he could spit just as far as a full-sized one. The extra eye-lid was kind of creepy, but other than that, he was pretty cute for an animal. He liked to run around our compound on his own four padded cloven hooves, but occasionally he would turn back into his humanoid form and let my mom or sister hold him. The humans did notice, and complained about, the camel, but they are not illegal in this providence, so my parents just went and got a permit for him.

Jake finished up his work and joined my sister at my parents' house, allowing Link to go back home to his own wife. And so everything went back to normal, except for the three guests and the camel, and that meant I had to continue school and speech therapy. The horror. At least I still got to live with Allison at the Whitlock house and Uncle Jasper did not have any more problems with his eggs.

Speech therapy was a pain, but after a while I got used to school. The only subject that turned out to be a nightmare for me was math. Mrs. Marinara was absolutely clueless and she had let Eliza sit in back of me, despite the notes from both my parents and my therapist advising against it. I would have chosen to sit somewhere away from her, but we got to pick our own seats and Mrs. Breadstick had held me after class to talk to me. Eliza and Aiden had saved me and Scryan seats, and they were the only two seats left in the room, so I was left with no choice but to sit by Eliza.

Scryan had sat in front of her the first day, so I would be to the front and to the side of her, but Mrs. Marinara had caught Eliza whispering in his ear and switched me and Scryan. I tried to protest, but like I said, my math teacher was clueless. Eliza was really mad at me for, well existing, not to mention that I had convinced our technology teacher that she was evil and that he should seat her on the opposite side of the room from me and Scryan. She could not get back at me at home, because she was grounded; stuck in our little three bedroom house with our parents, our sister, a shifter, a grown hybrid, and a baby camel. I had not been home, so I was only rarely subjected to camel spit, and there was nothing Eliza could do about it, except in math.

And so every day my math class got a little bit worse. At first it was just little things, like when Eliza told the kids sitting next to me that I was a baby or when she announced to the class that I was a retard who could not speak when Mrs. Marinara asked me a simple math question. I would have answered myself, but my cell phone program had timed out and it took me thirty seconds to reactivate it and by then it was too late. But that was just the beginning.

By the fourth week, Eliza was determined to make me suffer. She sat right behind me for an entire hour and with her shield, I had no way of determining what was going to happen. Monday morning she again started off slow, with pinching me and making me scream out in shocked surprise and pain. Then she put her wet finger in my ear, followed by giving me a wedgie. Wedgies did not hurt, but they were annoying, because they tore my clothes.

I was already the weird kid, because I did not talk, so I tried to play each event down and pretend like nothing happened. But I could not pretend nothing happened when I walked into math class Tuesday morning and she punched me square in the stomach before I could even take my seat. I had eaten breakfast right before school, just as everyone had, because there was no point in tempting us with human on an empty stomach. The force of her blow was so hard that my breakfast came back up and all over me.

I was trapped in the middle of math class, with Mrs. Marinara over at her desk reading her notes for the day and human students trickling in, and I was covered in synthetic blood. I stopped breathing, so that I would not have to smell it. I was already feeling the burn in my throat from losing my breakfast and I was not sure if I would be able to stand smelling it on me too, so holding my breath was the safer option.

I looked over at Scryan, who had taken his seat, but was zoned out in a vision. He was seeing what was happening right now, just seconds before the rest of us saw it. And as he saw the vision, he thought, 'How could she decide to do this? We're all gonna get in so much trouble. Masen, if you can hear me, I swear to Darwin that she didn't decide to do this until just now when she saw you walk into the room. I had no idea.'

"Of course Brandon didn't know. You've been with him non-stop for the last three weeks," Eliza sneered, before I could make sense of the situation and figure out what I should do about it. "Now go ahead and start crying like the baby you are."

I did want to cry about what she had done to me, but I did not want the other kids to think I was a baby. On the other hand, everyone was staring at me and even Aiden thought that I needed to do something. 'A human would be screaming or crying if they vomited up blood. Dad says it's not normal for humans to do that unless they're really sick and dying or something. You need to at least act weak and in pain,' Aiden thought to me.

Pain I could do, because my throat was on fire, so I let out a scream without taking a breath of air. Aiden jumped over the desk that was separating us and put his arm under my armpit and wrapped it around me, to make it look like he was supporting my weight.

"Mrs. Marinara, I think the deaf kid's dying," one of the humans, Clarissa, said to our teacher, finally drawing her attention to what was going on. Oddly enough, our teacher had been too engrossed in her notes to notice my scream. It was not much of a scream, because as my speech therapist says, I do not have much volume behind my verbal utterings, but it was as much of a scream as I could do and she should have noticed. None of the other mute kids at speech therapy could make that good of a scream. Okay, there was only one other mute kid and he had just gotten his cochlear implants, but still…

"He's not deaf, just mute," Mrs. Marinara said looking up from her desk. "Masen, why are you covered in blood?" She had finally looked at me and noticed my predicament.

"Eliza did it. You know she beats him up, it's in the report you got from their parents, but still you made him sit next to her," Aiden said. Scryan was supposed to be translating for me, but he was still stuck in a vision of the near future and could not get out or make his way back to reality.

"When did this happen?" Mrs. Marinara asked as the bell rang and the last of the students poured in the door to watch.

"Right now, in your class," Aiden replied and a lot of the other kids murmured that they had seen it all. "We need to get him to the hospital." 'Close your eyes and pretend like you're dying. I'm gonna pick you up and carry you to the nurse.'

'Why?'

'He'll call our parents to come get you. My dad's a doctor,' he thought in reply, already moving to pick me up. I closed my eyes.

"What are you doing Mr. Cullen? You'll hurt yourself," Mrs. Marinara stated.

"I'm taking him to the nurse. And I've carried him loads of times before; he's just a scrawny little thing," Aiden replied.

'Not helping,' I protested at being called scrawny.

'She looks like she doesn't believe I can carry you that far.'

'That's what she's thinking too, but don't give in. You're plenty tall to be able to carry me.'

"Put him down on the ground and I'll call the paramedics," she replied.

"No. Will someone get the door for me?" Aiden asked walking to the door.

The door had closed behind the last student when the bell rang and Aiden could have opened it himself, but he was trying to make it look like he could just barely carry me. One of the students, Lisa, who was close to the door jumped up and held it open for him and then we were out into the freedom of the hallway, but still I did not dare to breathe. We were in a human-filled hallway and my stomach was empty.

I waited until we were out in the open air before I took a breath.

'Are you gonna be okay man? We still have to get through the nurse's office, because it'll look weird if we just take off.'

'Eliza will cover for us and you know Aunt Alice must already be on her way. Let's wait a few minutes and then go. You can say you got tired and had to put me down to rest,' I projected my reply. 'Besides, Mrs. Marinara is just now noticing that Scryan is having a seizure and I don't want to miss this.'

Back in the classroom, Scryan had been unresponsive for ten full minutes, since right before Eliza had punched me. He was trying to snap himself out of it, because he did not want to be labeled as weird and he had already spent almost an entire month working really hard to not have a vision in class. But he could not help it and continued to sit there unresponsive and without the spectacle of me covered in blood to distract them, the humans had noticed.

"Brandon, why didn't you help Aiden with Masen?" Lisa asked taking her seat again after holding the door open for me and Aiden.

"Yeah Brandon, aren't they supposed to be like your friends or something?" Green asked. I was not sure why he was named after a color, but there were a lot of kids named after colors here, so none of us had ever asked and it was not something I had ever overheard him thinking about. "Aren't you worried about Masen?"

"I think he's dead guys," Clarissa said from across the room. She was a pessimist, but she was secretly hoping that one of us would die in front of her and that she would suddenly see thestrals, because she was taking the book we were reading in English class a bit too seriously.

Clarissa's comment got Mrs. Marinara's attention; she had been on the phone calling the office and covering her ass. Now she added that she had a second student down and would need two paramedics.

"He's not dead; he's just having a seizure. This happens to him all the time at home," Eliza said. I could not hear her, because we were too far away, but I could hear and see her in the thoughts of the humans around her.

"So what? You punch your brother so hard he has to go to the hospital and you cause your boyfriend to go into a seizure and you don't even care?" Lisa asked horrified. She was beginning to fear for her life.

"I agree with Lisa. We should get Brandon away from Eliza before she hurts him too," Green said.

I was beginning to like these humans, but I could not wait here forever and watch out for Scryan, because Aiden and I had to get to the nurse's office. And I could not just let the humans touch Scryan, because he would react badly if he came out of his vision surrounded by them. In the end, I decided to search for Jackson and Allison's thoughts and get them to help. They were in the next building over in their own class, so they were well within my reach and responded quickly.

"Ms. Deep Dish, we just got a text that our little brother's having a seizure. We need to go to him," Allison said grabbing Jackson's hand and excusing themselves from class without waiting to hear their teacher's reply.

Allison and Jackson came running out to meet me and Aiden, screaming for answers in their heads the whole time, because I was supposed to be watching him. 'Relax guys. He'll be fine, but you got to get to him and take him out of there before the humans do,' I projected and then they came into visual range of me and had even more questions. 'Eliza punched me and I lost my breakfast. Just keep going and it'll be okay.'

They listened and went off to save their brother from the humans and Mrs. Marinara, while Aiden picked me back up and carried me slowly to the nurse's office. I kept my eyes closed and tried to act unresponsive, while I continued to listen in on what was going on with Scryan back in math class.

"Mrs. Marinara, we'll take Brandon to the nurse's office. We're his older siblings and we've taken care of our baby brother loads of times before when this happens. Mom's already on her way with his meds," Allison said entering the room.

"Wow, I didn't know Brandon had older twin sisters too! I thought he just had the younger set of twin sisters," one of the humans, Weston, said.

"The one with stupidly long hair is a boy, you idiot," Lisa hissed at Weston. She thought Jackson was cute, despite the hair. Sometimes during lunch I would notice her fantasizing about cutting his hair off and then throwing herself at him.

"Yeah, um, how are the two of you gonna carry him? He's bigger than Aiden even!" Green asked.

"He's our baby brother. If we lead, he'll follow," Jackson said going over and taking Scryan's hand. He pulled him to his feet and slowly led him to the front of the classroom.

"Good Brandon, let's keep going. If you need us Mrs. Marinara, we'll be in the nurse's office waiting for our mom and Brandon's meds," Allison added taking Scryan's other hand.

Together Allison and Jackson led Scryan out of the classroom, down the hall, to the elevator, and out of the building, before pausing in the same quad where Aiden and I had waited.

"Thanks for saving me," Scryan said coming out of the vision as soon as he was outside and in clean, fresh air. "I was trying to come out of it at first, but once they all noticed what was going on, I realized that it would be better to stay in and not have to smell all of the tainted blood. I mean I could still smell it, but it wasn't in real time and I couldn't do anything about it."

"It's cool Scry. We'll always be here to protect you," Jackson said.

'I can already hear your mom's thoughts approach,' I projected from inside the nurse's office, so that they would hurry up and get here before their mom shows up.

They listened and started walking towards the office again, but Scryan went into another vision just as they were entering and that slowed them down. Allison and Jackson were just leading their brother over to the other cot in the nurse's office when what Scryan was foreseeing occurred: his mother entered the office with Grandpa Carlisle and demanded to see us and that we all be handed over into their custody immediately, before the nurse could examine us.

I chose that moment to come out of my pretend whatever it was I was pretending, and got Aiden to help me pretend to hobble to the door. Jackson and Allison helped Scryan, going right back the way they had come. Grandpa Carlisle went straight for me and started shouting medical things and Aunt Alice went to Scryan. Once they had us, they did not even wait for the paramedics to arrive or the office to release us, but instead just started leading us out to the car.

Kair and Kare are like their mother in that they have perfect timing, so of course they showed up at the office just as we were all walking out the door. Aunt Alice called, "And I'm taking Zakaira and Zikare too," over her shoulder and we just kept going. Now if they knew this was going to happen, why did they not warn me? I swear there is a conspiracy to keep me in the dark going on among those members of my family with knowledge of the future.

My parents arrived just as we were pulling away. I could tell from their thoughts that they were livid with Eliza and were planning on picking up all of the other kids for the day. They would say I was being rushed to some emergency stomach surgery to repair the rupture Eliza had caused when she punched me, Scryan was at home recovering from his seizures, and they would punish Eliza too. Only they had yet to decide what to do with my sister.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: So that's the worst of Eliza's misbehavior, I think. Now that she's reached rock bottom, her behavior will start to turn around…also there is a baby camel running around for those of you who wanted to see more of the hybrids. Did anyone guess that he was a camel?<p>

Please review! I'd really like to know if my readers have followed me back over here from twilighted, or if I've lost most of you. I know a few of you have followed…anyone else?


	38. Book3 Jasper ch13

Jasper's POV:

At first I helped Monroe with whatever he asked me too, but as time passed I made it clear that I preferred to hang with Mariam and Mariel and do woman's work. I still chopped the occasional log and butchered an animal or two, but mostly I helped with the laundry, mending, and sewing. I even learned to knit and make bread, from scratch. I never thought I would learn to cook after my disastrous experience with Alice trying to cook for our hosts; although I had been the better cook out of the two of us, I had only been able to prepare boxed meals and microwave dinners.

Now I had nothing better to do with my time than learn to cook from scratch, not that I spent much time in the kitchen, because that was Bethany's domain and I was still avoiding Monroe's wife, but occasionally Mariel, Mariam, Ma Jackson, and I would find ourselves together in the kitchen cooking. But mostly Mariel, Mariam, and I would sit in the afternoon sun and talk while we knitted. I was making sweaters for Kair and Kare, Mariel was making a blanket, and Mariam was making a pair of socks.

"How come no one ever stops by?" I asked untangling a bit of died wool. It was not died bright colors like in my time, but a reddish brown.

"How do ya mean?" Mariel asked.

"Well in my time I was always riding over to my grandfather's house and people were always stopping by our ranch for one thing or the other. There was the postman with our mail and sometimes the sheriff would come by and ask if we'd seen some runaway slave or cow. Ladies would stop by to purchase some of my mam's fried fish or just to sit and knit together. Men would come over to help out with the ranch or to talk with Pa. And other children would stop by to play. I haven't seen any visitors here and I've been here almost two weeks now."

"I think you forget that Houston's a very young town. We're on a homestead out in the middle of nowhere, not a ranch in a city. Monroe goes into town to pick up the post when he picks up our supplies and drops off whatever we have to sell. There're aren't no children yet 'cept baby Monty and Monroe hasn't had to pay any men to help him out since he's got you. We used to go over to the Whitlock's homestead to knit and sew with Suzanna, because she's our age. But that's a lot of work to get there and Bethie and Ma can't go on account of the baby. And now we've got you to knit and sew with, so we reckoned we might just as well stay here and save ourselves the hassle," Mariam said.

"Houston was a good size city in my day. Is it really just a tiny little frontier town?"

"Sure is," Mariel answered.

"How old are you, if you don't mind my asking," I asked, changing the subject. It was not common to see single adult women and I was wondering how it was that I had stumbled across two of them. They had mentioned that their seventeenth birthday had already passed, but they looked and acted a few several years older than that.

"We're almost eighteen. Our birthday's next month," Mariam answered, explaining why they were not hitched yet: they were younger than I thought and were still seventeen.

"And what of those suitors you mentioned before?"

"Well Augie ain't exactly asking for my hand and now that you've said I don't marry him, I guess I'll just be staying," Mariel said.

"In my days girls were getting hitched by eighteen and some as early as fifteen. What's the typical age to get married?"

"Eighteen or nineteen. But it can take longer out on the frontier to find a suitor that's not related," Mariel answered.

"So if Augie came knocking on the door tomorrow and asked for either of your hands, would you go?" I asked, wanting to know if they were planning on leaving the homestead, and thereby me.

"I might," Mariel replied.

"Definitely not; he hasn't even been courting me," Mariam replied. "And I ain't gonna marry Lenny if he's gonna die soon anyway."

"Well I guess that's as good as I can ask for," I said happy that I had convinced my grandmother not to waste any more of her time on Lenard Cook.

"Enough 'bout us, we wanna know 'bout you," Mariel said.

"Yes, tell me about your wife Jasper. What's she like?" Mariam asked me.

"She's perfect, truly perfect. She smells like sunshine and her eyes sparkle. And the best part is how she feels; she has the most luscious, decadent feelings I've ever felt. It's like she's composed of pure hope, joy, and excitement," I answered.

"How'd ya meet?" Mariel asked me.

"I was alone, walking along the streets of Philadelphia and very depressed, when it started to rain. I ducked into a little diner to get out of the rain and there she was. She walked right up to me and said, 'You've kept me waiting a long time.'"

"She saw you coming?" Mariam asked.

"Yes, she had seen me decades before, but decided to wait until I was ready for her."

"Why wouldn't you be ready?"

"I lived a very different life before she found me that day. I had only recently left my brother Peter to wander on my own. And I had only been with him a few years before I ran away from my creator, Maria. Alice didn't want to take me from Maria, but instead waited for me to come to her."

"But surely if you were meant to be, then your creator would've let you be together," Mariel replied.

"She might've, but that wasn't the type of life Alice wanted to live, because she knew I wouldn't be able to handle eternity like that. Maria and I were in a very long never ending war with others of our kind. She was constantly creating soldiers to fight in our war and I was constantly training them and leading them into battle. They never lasted long, so it was an endless occupation."

"So Alice waited?" Mariam asked, looking up from her knitting.

"Yes she waited. I asked her once what she did with all her time while she was waiting and she told me that she spent most of her time fantasizing about rescuing me. She wanted to ride in on a white horse and rescue poor little me from my distress."

"How romantic: the princess rescuin' the prince in distress," Mariel said.

"It's better that she waited to do it the way she did, because if she would've just come galloping in I would've thought she was a threat and attacked without speaking to her first. All of my experiences taught me that strangers could only be a threat. She'd die and then I'd be stuck in that miserable existence forever."

"It makes a lovely story dear," Mariam said.

"I wish a man'd come sweep me off my feet like that," Mariel added.

"But that's the thing, I didn't sweep Alice off of her feet, she swept me off of mine. And she didn't do it until I took the initiative to leave Maria on my own. If you wait to be saved, you never will be. You've got to save yourself first and then others can help."

"Yes, but you're the pregnant one knitting the sweaters, which makes you the woman in your relationship. So of course she'd be sweeping you off your feet," Mariel replied.

"I'm still the man of the house and the father of our children."

"Who stays at home and who goes to work?" Mariam asked.

"In my time, women and men are equals, so it's common for the men to stay home and the women to go to work."

"You didn't answer the question," Mariel argued.

"Fine, neither of us stays home all day. Alice goes to work at a manufacturing plant and I worked at the school. I was one of the teachers."

"Teaching's women's work," Mariel replied smugly.

"Teaching's an important job that has to be done. We only had eight adults in our community and I was the only one who could control those children. You've got no idea what it's like to be in a room with a dozen of 'em."

"Okay, if you were one of the teachers, who was the other?" Mariam asked.

"My brother Emmett. He had a teaching degree already, but he couldn't control my monsters."

"Hmm, both men? Me thinks the men are the women and the women are the men in your world," Mariel concluded.

"Hold up sister and give him a chance. Who watches the young'ins after school?" Mariam asked.

"I do," I admitted. I did not see anything wrong with being a man and taking care of my children at the same time, but it just was not done in their time. "Many men in my time are stay-at-home dads."

"But surely there are still jobs that men are better at. They're strong and all," Mariam replied.

"Men and women of my kind are both plenty strong. And strength won't be needed in the human world for much longer. They build machines to do everything for them and it comes down to brains, not brawn."

"How wonderful! I think I'd like to live in a world like that!" Mariam exclaimed.

"I think I'd still like to stay home with the children," Mariel replied.

"Believe me, staying home with my children is harder than what Alice does at work all day. Kair and Kare are tame in comparison to my other kids."

"I don't believe it. How could those sweat girls have siblings that're that bad?" Mariam asked. "I've been picturing all your kids just like them."

"Jackson's into extreme sports. He was running circles on the ceiling when he was the size of a two year old," I started.

"That can't be," Mariel replied surprised.

"It can. Scryan and Ashley were just barely born when they first tried to follow him. They spend most of their time up on the ceiling waiting to ambush me. But at least when they're up there, I know what their doin.' Otherwise, they're off somewhere else planning a prank that's worse."

"Like what?" Mariam asked.

"Like one time they made their aunts kiss on the lips."

"What about the other one?" Mariel asked. "The fourth child."

"Allison's both the easiest and the most difficult. She's calmer and highly rational and she'll help us out sometimes by setting a good example and encouraging her siblings to do what they're told, but only when she wants to. At the same time, she's smarter than us and comes up with some pretty out there schemes. Once when she was a baby she built a rocket and was planning on launching it by herself. And Jackson had a bunch of fireworks. If it hadn't been for Alice's visions, we'd have two dead children by now."

"Okay, they do sound like they're out of control. How's your wife gonna manage without you?" Mariam asked concerned.

"Well the kids did promise to behave when they learned they were getting another two sisters. Alice didn't want more children because the first four were so much work, so when we decided to try again, we sat them down and explained that they couldn't behave like monsters if they were getting baby sisters. And they're all preteens now, so they're a little better with controlling themselves, and I hope they're keeping their promises and not giving Alice too hard of a time."

"Are they lookin' forward to the birth of the twins then?" Mariam asked.

"Yes. I think Jackson is the most, because he's very paternal."

"The little dare devil is paternal?" Mariel asked surprised.

"Yes. He's always helping out with Scryan and Ashley. He's the only one who has said that he wants to be a parent when he grows up. He wants to be just like me and have a house full of kids and be the stay-at-home dad." Parenting in my house always resembled an extreme sport, so I could see the lure it had over my dare-devil of a son.

"Do all of the men stay home with the children and all of the women work?" Mariel asked.

"No, it's all about free choice. There are families were the woman stays home and the man works. Each couple can decide for themselves who works and who stays home and often times they split it. Esme and Carlisle, my adoptive parents, will switch off. He used to work full time and she would only work part time when we were with the humans. Once we moved to our island, they both only worked part time. But she's an architect, so when we needed to expand, she worked full time and he only worked part time."

"What about the other families in your town?" Mariam asked.

"Emmett, the other teacher, was like me and took care of his children after school. And with Edward and Bella, they'd split it. Bella watched the kids in the morning before school while Edward went to work and Edward watched them after, before Bella got home. And with Peter and Charlotte, Charlotte stays home and Peter works."

"It's as if anything goes," Mariel suggested.

"Yes and I wouldn't trade my life for anything. My family's perfect and I love being the one who gets to stay with them."

"Even the one who runs on the ceiling?" Mariam asked.

"Just because a boy can act wild like the boys of your day, doesn't mean that's all there is too him. When Jackson was little he'd hug me and kiss me and tell me he loved me and that I was the best dad in the world."

"I wish I could meet him," Mariam said. "He sounds very sweat."

"He is sweat; they all are."

"Even Ashley?" asked a disembodied voice from one of my twins.

"Yes, even Ashley," I answered, looking for where the voice was coming from.

"Pull as through Nana Mariam and Nana Mariel," the disembodied voice of my other twin asked.

Mariam and Mariel set their knitting aside, stood up, and each pulled one of my girls out of their wormhole. Kair and Kare now appeared to be the size of five year-old humans and they were much too heavy for the human twins to carry, so they were immediately set down. As soon as they were down, they were jumping into my arms and I barely had time to set down my knitting.

"I'm so glad to see you girls. You've kept me waiting a long time," I said, kissing each twin on the forehead.

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><p>Author's Note: Please Review!<p> 


	39. Book2 Masen ch13

Masen's POV:

Eliza punched me on a Tuesday morning, and by Thursday morning, there were humans at our doorstep. The other kids had all gone back to school Wednesday, Eliza had been punished, and Scryan and I were spending the week at home with Uncle Jasper and Ashley. I was still living at the Whitlock house and Uncle Jasper had to stay home with Ashley anyway, to protect her from unexpected human visits, so it was just the four of us there when the humans arrived.

Today's visit was far from unexpected, because Aunt Alice and Scryan had known since Tuesday afternoon that these humans were coming. The school had sent a report of the day's incidents on to social services and the school psychiatrist. The school psychiatrist was supposed to come out some time in the next few weeks to check on Ashley and make sure her home schooling was adequate, because she was not in school with the rest of us, but after the incident, our family got moved to the top of the list. And now a representative from social services would be coming too.

Uncle Jasper and Aunt Alice spent yesterday afternoon coaching us on what we were and were not allowed to say and do while the humans were here. I was supposed to stay lying down on the hospital bed in the living room, because of the pretend surgery I just had and was still recovering from. Scryan was not supposed to have any visions. And Ashley was supposed to stay as far back from the humans as possible, because the effect of emotions on her was proportional to the inverse square of the distance, or something like that. Seriously, sometimes Allison can take the application of math to her everyday life way too far.

When the human guard at the gate out front of our complex called to say that he just let the psychiatrist and social worker through, Scryan, Ashley, and I put away the homemade grenades we had been working on and went about our roles, while trying to portray an air of normalcy. Allison had shown us how to make the grenades out of common household items yesterday, because part of Eliza's punishment was that she was assigned to supervise the plumber that was scheduled to come tomorrow. We were planning on tossing the grenades down the toilets and making her job a whole lot worse. Sometimes it is nice that Aunt Alice is a prankster at heart and does not tell on us when she sees us planning this type of thing.

The grenades were safely locked away, I was tucked into the hospital bed, Scryan was by my side pretending to read me a magazine, and Ashley was shadowing her father by the time the humans found the right house, parked their car, prepared their clipboards, and knocked on the door.

Uncle Jasper opened the door saying, "Yes? How may I help you?"

The humans introduced themselves as Ms. Stein, the social worker and Dr. Buffalo Wing, the school psychiatrist and said that they had come for a routine home check. Dr. Buffalo Wing worked for the Kentucky Fried Chicken Elementary school and the Foster Farms All Natural High School that were also in our district, hence the name: it was the only one he could think of to satisfy all three school's sponsors simultaneously. Foster Farms had taken the word chicken out of their slogan when they switch to making their buffalo wings out of mealworms, but the mealworms were all natural. Kentucky Fried Chicken left the word chicken in their name, but they never claimed be too natural or use actual chicken.

"Well come right in, just try to stay back from Ashley: close proximity to strangers sets off her schizophrenia," Uncle Jasper said letting them in. "My wife and I were sure someone was going to come after what happened at school on Tuesday. We've been aware of the problem for some time and we do all that we can to help keep that sister of his away from Masen. He used to spend the night with us all the time, but now we've moved him into our oldest son Jackson's room and his parents have been visiting him here. Well we plan on moving him into Jackson's room, but for now you can see that we've got him set up in the living room."

"Oh, we were not aware that Masen Swan would be here too. We were coming to check on Brandon and Ashley. We have another visit planned for the Swans," Ms. Stein said.

"Well maybe you can just take notes so that you don't have to come back? I know the Swans are doing everything they can to get their daughter under control, but some children just don't listen," Uncle Jasper replied.

"Do your children listen, Mr. Whitlock?" Dr. Buffalo Wing asked.

"For the most part, yes. Mine get into little squabbles, but at the end of the day they love each other and no one gets hurt."

"It must be hard with six children within three years of age and now with Masen added, that makes seven," Ms. Stein replied.

"No, it's not hard, more like fun and fulfilling. I love the kids and I love being a stay at home dad. And my wife makes plenty of money to support us all, so we've got more than enough room for everybody."

"I find it hard to believe that your six children never get out of hand. The reports I have from their teachers describe Allison, Jackson, Zikare, and Zakaira as headstrong and outspoken. Don't they pick on shy little Brandon a lot?" Dr. Buffalo Wing asked.

"Brandon's never been exactly little. If he weren't the timid one, you'd be accusing him of bullying the other kids because of his size," Uncle Jasper replied, only letting his temper flair a little.

"Look Mr. Whitlock, I'm worried that the same thing that is happening over at the Swan house might be happening here too. Why else would Brandon be so introverted if your other five kids don't bully him?" Dr. Buffalo Wing asked.

"Because he's my sweet baby boy. Kair and Kare don't let me baby them and Brandon does. We're all happy with things the way they are. Brandon gets attention and I get a kid who still calls me Daddy and wants to spend time tossing the baseball around. Now if you've come to check on his well-being and that of the other kids in this house, I suggest you get started. I'm more than willing to show you around."

"I can make my job fairly quick: I just need to examine the home and make sure everything's in order and then I can go," Ms. Stein replied.

"I'll need to speak with the kids. Maybe I could do that while you show Ms. Stein around?" Dr. Buffalo Wing asked.

"You may speak with Masen and Brandon without me, but like I said, Ashley doesn't do well with strangers and will be going with me wherever I go," Uncle Jasper answered.

"And where is Ashley?" Ms. Stein asked.

"Right there," Uncle Jasper answered, pointing to where Ashley could just be seen through the doorway. She had been right next to her father up until he let the humans into the house and then she retreated to the stairs to watch from a distance.

"Alright, let's get started," Ms. Stein replied.

Uncle Jasper started on his tour of the house, with Ashley staying near him, but as far away from the humans as possible the whole time. He began in the living room and the downstairs bathroom, before moving onto the kitchen and dining room. The dining room was normally used as an art studio, but since we knew the humans were coming, we cleaned the place up, packed away all the art supplies, and added a tablecloth and place settings. There was even a stack of clean plates in the middle of the table.

The kitchen was only used for storing and dispensing synthetic blood, but the blood had been moved and my mom had come over and cooked a bunch of human food in it yesterday. There were lots of dirty dishes from pancakes and orange juice in the sink and a roast cooking in the oven. Uncle Jasper was not a particularly good cook, but Mom had programed the oven to start automatically with the right temperature, so all he had to do was dispose of it after the humans leave.

"Excuse the mess: I was just starting tonight's dinner and hadn't gotten a chance to clean up from breakfast yet. With a family of nine and Ashley's schooling to see to, these things have to be preplanned and take all day," I heard Uncle Jasper say from the kitchen, before leading Ms. Stein upstairs. "A caribou roast, rice, and vegetables should keep the family satisfied." It would have been over doing it to have beef from actual cows, but caribou was still fairly common in the region.

Grandma Esme had built the Whitlocks a three story house with six children's bedrooms and a master bedroom, so Uncle Jasper and Ashley where gone for a while showing it all to Ms. Stein. Once Uncle Jasper was out of human hearing range, Dr. Buffalo Wing started questioning me and Scryan.

"So Masen, how are you feeling today?" he asked me.

"Better. I think I might be able to get up today," I signed and Scryan translated. I could have turned on my cell program, but it did not work very well lying down in a bed.

"Does your sister hurt you often?"

"Yes and no. Normally she sticks to the little things, like pulling my hair, pinching me, and calling me names. She's hit me before, but she's been a lot worse since we started school, because she's jealous of Brandon and me spending time together. She doesn't like that we got put in all the same classes and she didn't."

"And what do your parents do about it when she does these things to you?"

"They ground her and tell her to stop and not to do it again. Lately they've been trying to keep us apart more."

"And do you agree with them? Do you think they're doing the right thing?"

"Well what else can they do? She's their daughter too and they can't exactly get rid of her." I wanted to say no and that Eliza was never punished sufficiently and really get her in trouble with my parents, but I also did not want to cause human trouble for my family. It would not do if the humans had to keep coming back, because Ashley would be subjected to the visits too.

"Alright. I'll have to talk to your parents and your sister before I make my final ruling, but let's move on for now. Brandon, how are you doing? I know you had a pretty bad seizure on Tuesday."

"Yeah, it was pretty bad. Normally I can fight them off or control them, but Eliza punching Masen was just too much stimuli. My meds have it under control and I haven't had another one since, so it looks like I'll be able to go back to school next week," Scryan said, speaking for himself this time.

"I understand that you're dating Eliza. How's that working for you?"

"Pretty well. I'm a little mad at her right now and haven't seen her since Tuesday, but she's a much better girlfriend than she is a sister."

"Does she ever hit you like she hits Masen?"

"No, she loves me. She hits _Masen_ because he talks to me, not the other way around."

"So she keeps you away from other people?" Dr. Buffalo Wing asked, turning around what Scryan had said to make it sound worse than it really was.

"No, just Masen, because he's her twin. They've got that whole twin rivalry thing going on. I don't know why she can't be cool with him like Ashley is with me."

"About Ashley, I know you two are twins, but does her schizophrenia ever make you scared?"

"No!" Scryan exclaimed laughing.

It was pretty funny that he would be afraid of his best friend over some pretend disease, but I was supposed to be recovering from surgery and laughing was on the list of things I was not supposed to be doing, so I held my amusement in. Besides, I knew that if he had all of the information, Dr. Buffalo Wing would be asking if Ashley's power ever made Scryan scared, and I knew for a fact that it did. But revealing the mild discord between the two would not help in our goal of getting rid of the humans, so I kept my hands still and did not sign a word.

"You seem to think that that question was very amusing. Care to tell me why?"

"Have you seen her? Ashley's like a foot shorter than me! She's almost as tiny as my mom, so there's no way she could ever hurt me with one of her fits. I'm just glad my limbs don't flail with my seizures, because I could accidentally hurt her pretty easily if they did."

"So Ashley's always been smaller than you to the point where she couldn't possibly hurt you? Even when you were little?"

"Yeah, let me show you a picture of when we were babies," Scryan said getting up and going over to the bookcase full of photo albums. Yesterday he saw this entire day and how it would play out, so he had already gone through the photos and placed the one he wanted on top. There were pictures in the stack that we did not want the humans to see, so he only pulled out the one he wanted. There used to be a portrait done from this picture up in their house on our island, but it had his name, Scryan, written below him and he was supposed to be Brandon now, so they had not brought it with them.

"This is Ashley and me on our first birthday and I'm already twice her size. Dr. Cullen said that I was taking up all of the space inside my mom and squishing Ashley in the process, because I was way bigger than her when we were born too," Scryan lied. This was in fact a picture taken days after his emergence when he and his sister had first arrived on our island. And there was no way that Scryan could have squished his sister, when they were in separate eggs and hosts.

"You two don't look much alike for twins. I know your older brother and sister look very similar and your younger sisters are identical. Does it bother you that you and your twin don't look alike?" Dr. Buffalo asked grasping at straws. He had expected to find a lot more problems in this family than he was finding. Scryan had not answered all of his questions right, but he had gotten just enough wrong to appear normal.

"I look just like my older two siblings, except for my hair. I've got the same hair as Kair and Kare, so I think I fit in pretty good with the rest of the family. Ashley looks like Kair and Kare, but has dark hair like Jackson and Allison, so she fits in too, just in different ways. Why should that bother me?"

"Well some kids might be bothered is all…" Dr. Buffalo started.

"Are we done yet?" Scryan asked cutting him off. "Masen and I've got things to do and we've only got a few days off from school to do them. We're trying to pick out what type of snowboards we want to ask for because Dad's taking us all snowboarding once Masen's better."

He held up his snowboarding magazine from earlier. The sport had been improved by the use of rocket stabilizers to keep the humans from tumbling out of control and by the addition of GPS tracking and computer chips that ensured that they did not crash into trees either. In fact, if a human was trying to crash into a tree, the rocket stabilizers would automatically kick in and stop the board. It was good news for humans, because it made the sport safer, but Scryan and I just wanted regular boards, so we were going to have them special ordered. Thus explaining why we had important snowboarding magazines to study, because if we were going through all of the trouble to have them special ordered, they might as well be right.

I nodded my head as I heard Uncle Jasper showing Ms. Stein the last room upstairs. He had saved Jackson's for last and was explaining how all of my stuff would fit into the room. Jackson and I wore the same size clothes almost, and Jackson had a humungous closet full of clothes, so Uncle Jasper was saying that half of them were mine. And there was a set of bunk beds in there that we were supposed to be using to sleep on when I am not in the hospital bed in the living room. It was all funny enough that I could have laughed, but since that was banned, I kept my mouth shut and waited.

I did not have to wait long for Uncle Jasper, Ashley, and Ms. Stein to return, but when they did, Dr. Buffalo Wing still wanted to talk to Ashley. There was some discussion about it among the grownups, but in the end, it was decided that Ashley would stand on one side of the living room next to Uncle Jasper and the humans would stand on the other, and she would answer questions.

Ashley kept most of her answers to simple one word sentences, except for when she said that she was not being abused, was perfectly happy here, and that her dad was doing a fine job of homeschooling her and her schizophrenia was not so bad if others were not around, confirming what the rest of us had already said. With Uncle Jasper dampening down all of the emotions in the room as much as possible, she managed to keep her cool and successfully convinced the humans that there was nothing more to do here, since everything in this house was as fine as it could be, given the circumstances.

'Seven kids and not even one sitter bot,' Ms. Stein thought to herself as she packed her things back into her car. She had expected to find a house full of them and that Ashley secretly had Robot Sitting Syndrome. She was happy to be able to report that for once she was wrong.

"Good job kids," Uncle Jasper said standing by the window and watching the humans pull away. He had one hand over his egg-sac and was once more emitting his aura of love and happiness, like he always does when he touches his egg-sac. It was something he did a lot of now that he was in parity, but the action never seemed to register in his consciousness; he probably does not even know he does it.

Our work for the day was finally over, so I jumped out of bed and started retrieving my grenade parts.

"Why do we even bother with humans? They're way too much work and we were fine on our own," Scryan complained, joining me with the grenades.

"Just so we're clear, those will not be going in any of the toilets in this house. If you want to bomb Eliza's toilet, then I'm not going to stop you, but don't go making nuisances of yourselves," Uncle Jasper warned sternly, but happily. He thought Eliza could use a little bit more punishment after what she had done and was not about to stop me from blowing up the toilets at my own house, but he did not want to have to deal with the stink of humans and sewage at his own house.

"Yes Dad," Scryan replied.

'I can't wait to see the look on Edward's face when he smells it,' Uncle Jasper thought to himself.

He still liked to get back at my dad for things that had happened before I was born, like the time my dad told a school full of humans that Uncle Jasper had been raped. They had some crazy stories of their time in school together and they hoped that the rest of us would make memories just like theirs. Well I guess Eliza punching me in the middle of math class fits right in with those stories, so mission accomplished. I was starting to think that Scryan was right and it was time to quit school.

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><p>Author's Note: Please review!<p> 


	40. Book3 Jasper ch14

Jasper's POV:

Mariam and Mariel set their knitting aside, stood up, and each pulled one of my girls out of their wormhole. Kair and Kare now appeared to be the size of five year-old humans and they were much too heavy for the human twins to carry, so they were immediately set down. As soon as they were down, they were jumping into my arms and I barely had time to set down my own knitting.

"I'm so glad to see you girls. You've kept me waiting a long time," I said, kissing each twin on the forehead.

"That's Mommy's line," Kare replied.

"You two are a bit bigger than I was expecting: this sweater will never fit," I said holding up the sweater I had already finished so that my girls could see.

"We'll come back that size again," Kair said.

"So you're not visiting me in order anymore?" I asked.

"Yes and no. Each series of visits for us is in order, but the series overlap," Kare answered.

"Do explain," I urged.

"Well we can't move the wormhole very far, so we have to be in Houston when we enter it if we're gonna get to you before our time is up and we have to head back home," Kair began.

"And we haven't lived in Houston with Uncle Peter since we were five years old. Not since what for you was the first day you fell in the wormhole," Kare continued.

"We come back to visit Uncle Peter once every few years and when we do, we visit you here, but we try to spread the visits out evenly and we also spend time with our Nanas before we brought you here," Kair finished.

"Okay, but why did you say you'd have to turn back before reaching me if you aren't in Houston? Is there a time limit I don't know about to your time traveling?" I asked.

"Only the one you and Mom impose. We have to go to school during the day and do homework in the evening and spend quality family time together at night, so that only leaves two hours and fifteen minutes every day for time travel. It normally takes us about seven minutes to get here," Kare answered, confirming what Monroe had said about their visits lasting for two hours.

"I sound very fair and reasonable," I replied. "But how are you going to school in Houston if you don't live here?"

"Sometimes you homeschool us during our visits, if they're short. Or if we stay a little longer, we go to school with our cousins Kynna and Jace," Kair replied. "We're all in the same class."

"There's a school here in Houston?" I wanted to specify that I was talking about vampire schools, but I did not want to say the v-word in front of the humans. They may know almost everything there is to know about our kind and they probably even suspect what we are, but I was not about to confirm their suspicions for them.

"Yes, there are schools all over now, wherever there are children of our kind. There are a lot of children around the same age, because everyone germinated eggs in the years following the war. And a lot of our kind moved to Houston after the southern wars ended, so there are enough children in the city for a class," Kare said. Putting an end to the southern wars was one of the many positive things the Volturi had done for our kind before their fall.

My girls spent the next few minutes telling me more about the world in their time, but we were interrupted by the clopping sounds of horses galloping in our direction. I looked up at the grey sky to check the state of the cloud cover, to determine whether or not I should take my sparkly girls and run for cover. The Jacksons never seemed to mind when we sparkled, but I did not want to risk exposing our secret to whoever was visiting on those galloping horses. Today looked to be one of those rare cloudy days and the layers of water vapor in the air looked thick enough to last all day; in fact it looked like we were in for some much needed rain, because Houston was currently in a drought.

With the weather on my side, I decided to hold my ground and take my chances with the visiting humans; the only thing that still worried me was my girls and their reaction to strange humans. They were fine around the Jacksons, but the Jacksons were family and they have been visiting this homestead since they were toddlers. I had no idea how much exposure they had to other humans; ones that they were not biologically or emotionally linked to. So I pulled both girls into my arms and held them firm, in case one of them lost control.

"Who could that be comin'?" Mariam asked, only hearing the horses just now.

"Maybe Suzanna's comin' over for a visit," Mariel suggested.

"No, those horses're gallopin' too fast for a casual visit. Suzanna'd fall off her horse if she was goin' that fast," Mariam replied. "Monroe, are you 'spectin' anyone?"

"No, not today. Maybe it's the Sheriff with news of some kind," he suggested, coming from over by the barn, where he had been reshoeing his horse.

"Maybe," Mariel replied.

And while I listened to the human conversation, I was also listening to Kare whispering into my ear. "The humans can't know about us, because it doesn't fit with your cover story."

"You always take us into the barn to hide when visitors come over," Kair added.

I nodded and just moments before the visitors appeared, I dashed into the barn with my girls to wait in secrecy. I still held onto the girls for my own comfort, even though they would no longer be close enough to the visitors to smell them up close. And then I could see through the open barn door that several horses were appearing through the low brush. There were six horses total and each one had a scruffy looking man on its back. The youngest was a teenager, around the age of sixteen or so and he was apprehensive and scared as he clung to the reigns of his horse in the back of the group. The oldest man looked to be in his thirties, was full of anger, and was riding point; clearly the leader of the bunch.

"Howdy Monroe," the oldest man said dipping his cowboy hat. "We've got ourselves a runaway slave and we're fixin' to put together a posse to go after 'em. Are you in?"

"No," I answered, stepping forward, out of the barn and answering for Monroe. I had set the girls down the moment I heard the word slave and they stayed out of sight in the barn behind me. "We won't be able to help you out today." I was not about to participate in a posse and I did not want Monroe to either.

"And who are you?" The leader asked looking from Monroe to me and back to Monroe.

"I'm Jasper Cullen. I'm stayin' here with the Jacksons," I said, giving the explanation we had agreed upon previously.

"Monroe, are ya really gonna let this man speak for you?" the leader asked, trying to pressure Monroe into joining him. "Last I checked, ya were the man of this house, not some visitor."

"It depends," Monroe answered him, before turning to me. "Jasper, is there a reason why we shouldn't help out? These men'd help me out if I needed 'em."

"I'll explain it later, in private. I won't be going and I hope you'd trust me on this one," I whispered into Monroe's ear, having closed the distance between us.

I sent Monroe the feeling of trust and encouraged him to agree with me. He looked me in the eye for a few seconds before nodding and turning back to the leader. "Sorry John, but I'm gonna go with Jasper on this one. You'll have to go on without me, but I wish you luck in findin' him," Monroe said tipping his hat. "My boy's sick today and the women folk need our help tendin' him."

"Oh we'll find him al'ight, whether he's dead or alive," the leader replied, tapping his pistol in his belt. He also had a shotgun with him and the rest of the posse was heavily armed as well. "Give my regards to your ma and that wife of yours and I hope the boy recovers swiftly."

"Well go on then," I said dismissing them and turning my back to them.

The posse did not move, nor did Monroe, so I touched his shoulder lightly and indicated for him to follow me into the barn. He did and that triggered the posse to turn around and gallop off with a mixture of surprise, disappointment, anger, and hatred.

"Sorry about pulling my weight on you like that," I apologized, opening my arms for my girls to jump up into them. I silently thanked them for staying put and nuzzled my nose into first Kare's hair and then Kair's.

"I'd like to know why," he replied. "Those men're my friends and we all help each other out 'round these parts."

"If they find that slave, he'll hang."

"And? Runaway slaves get hanged, that's the law."

"It ain't right."

"It ain't right that they runaway when they know they're property."

"It ain't right that they're property. This's what the next war's about, slaves, and our side doesn't win. Hundreds of thousands of white Southerners die for the right to keep other men as slaves. I die in this war. My father, two of my brothers, and my sister all die, and for what? For the right to cheap labor? To keep people down? I can't stand by and watch you put your hat in with them. I'm tryin' to keep this family alive."

"The Negros are slaves, they're supposed to be kept down. Otherwise we'd have to ship them back to Africa. We can't have 'em mixin' in with regular folk."

"Why can't we?"

"They're dirty, disease ridden, retards. What if they contaminated the rest of us?"

"In the future, they do contaminate the whites with their dark skin. The color of their skin and a lack of proper education is the only difference between them and you."

"Can't your kind do somethin' about it?" he asked incredulously.

"We encourage it. In fact, four of my step-siblings were African." I wanted to tell them that I had black brothers and sisters too, but I did not want him telling my grandmother too much.

"You've got Negro step-brothers and step-sisters?"

"Yes."

"And you just agreed to this adoption? You were already a grown man, why didn't you leave?"

"Because I agree with them. I named Kair and Kare after two of them. Zakaira and Zikare are African names."

Monroe was speechless after that, so I gave him some space and went to find the twins. They had gone into the house during the confrontation and I found them sitting on the floor combing wool for their knitting. I joined them and moments later when the task was done, we went back outside to knit on the porch, but before long my girls had to go and I was left all alone with the humans once more.

I was back in my pile of hay in the barn when one of the riders from the posse came back. It was not the leader, but one of the other men. I did not go out to greet him, but watched from the safety of the barn, to avoid another confrontation.

"Monroe?" he called out.

"Paul?" Monroe asked, coming out of the house. "What're you doing back here so soon?"

"We found the Negro. John tied him up and got men watchin' him. We're gonna have a proper hangin' in the mornin'. I've been sent out to invite everyone," the man, apparently Paul, said.

"Sorry, but I can't make it, not with the new baby being sick. I wish yall the best of luck," Monroe replied, thankfully taking my advice.

"It's mighty shameful for abled bodied men to turn their heads in time of need," Paul replied.

"I'd help, you know I would, but I've got the baby to worry about. Little Monty's real sick and this is our first baby," Monroe lied. "If some'in' happened to him, I'd never forgive myself."

"And what about that strange guest of yours?"

"Jasper? He's not abled bodied. He can't even do men's work. He spends all his time knitting with my sisters."

"What's the story with him? Is he courtin' Mariam or Mariel?"

"Neither. He's a traveler that fell off his horse. We let him stay for a while until he can get back on his feet and buy a new horse. He's handy with things, like hunting that Alligator I brought into town, but he's a bit backwards with most tasks."

"What was he doin' 'round these parts in the first place?"

"He was visiting his mother. But he never made it and now I think he just wants to get back home to his wife."

It took another ten minutes, but Paul eventually decided he had to get on his way and Monroe went back inside his house. Once the way was clear, I snuck out of the barn and followed the scent of Paul's horse until I found John's homestead and the tied up slave. There were three men on guard when I arrived, but as the night wore on, two of the three left. I waited in the shadows and sent the remaining guard lethargy, until he finally fell asleep.

As soon as the final guard was out and the slave was left unguarded, I slipped in and untied him. He woke up, but I covered his mouth and put my finger to my lips, to indicate that he should stay quiet. It was hard to do, because he was bleeding, but I picked him up and ran him into the wilderness. Once we were free of John's posse, I stopped to ask him which way he wanted to go. He had a family waiting for him at a safe house, so I escorted him there and impressed upon him the need to make haste out of town.

I must have succeeded, because when John came back to our homestead, he was livid that his slave had escaped. When I failed to care, he suspected I had done something to help the Negro escape, but he had no evidence and I was not about to admit my involvement. Over time, the whole incident faded from memory, except for that no one stopped by the Jackson homestead looking for men to join in a posse now. We did not even get invited to hangings, which was fine by me.

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><p>Author's Note: Please review!<p> 


	41. Book2 Masen ch14

Masen's POV:

Scryan and I both got to stay home for the rest of the week after that first incident at school and Eliza got in trouble both at school and at home. At home her grounding was doubled, she was only allowed deer blood instead of synthetic, and my dad started making her help him with the humans who would stop by, like the sewer repair man after we dropped grenades down the toilet. That guy smelled revolting and Eliza had to greet him, supervise his sewer repairs, and see him off the property every time he came. Needless to say I started to really get into the habit of flushing homemade grenades down the toilet. It was the only use our toilets ever got.

At school, Eliza got suspended for two weeks, which meant that instead of going to class, she had to spend all day locked in the detention room with the other suspended kids. Dad said it was really awful because it was the epitome of boredom and the other kids do not bathe enough, so they smell really bad. And she got kicked out of my math class and put in another class, so she would not sit behind me once her suspension was over. We were in the advanced math class for our grade and the school only had one of those, so she had to go into regular math. It did not seem like much of a punishment to me, but to her it meant another hour away from the rest of us.

The best part about Eliza's punishment was that she was being kept away from me and she would no longer be able to bother me in math class. Now we only have technology and band class together. The technology teacher still watches her like a hawk, especially after hearing that she had punched me, and has labeled her a problem student. And our band teacher was notified to be on the lookout for Eliza getting within twenty feet of me, so he made her sit in the back of the room.

I was secretly hoping that she would try something again, so that she would get kicked out of all my classes, but I had no such luck. I highly doubt that she has learned her lesson, but I do think that she is sufficiently sick of her punishments that she has decided to behave in school around me. She does not even insult me to the other kids anymore unless someone directly asks her about me.

I was still living at the Whitlock house and life was pretty good there. The social worker had not been back and the psychiatrist only stopped by a few more times, because he wanted to try to convince Uncle Jasper to take Ashley and Scryan to a therapist. Uncle Jasper pulled out his old psychology degree and said he was a therapist; he just had to change the date a few hundred years. He told Dr. Buffalo Wing to back off and after a few home visits, the school psychiatrist finally did.

Dr. Buffalo Wing and Ms. Stein also paid a visit to my house, but I was not there. Dad said it went well for him and mom, but not so great for Eliza. She was getting a therapist of her own, since I already had to go see one and the school authorities thought everything was her fault. She put up a fight, which was pretty funny, but in the end she went because my parents had finally beaten her into submission with threats of the plumber coming back.

I still had to see my therapist once a week and go to speech therapy every day after school, so it was only fair that Eliza should have to deal with the humans too. My speech was improving, to the point where I could say most words individually, but I still stuttered tremendously when trying to string them into a sentence. And I still do not like the way my voice sounds, so I was not about to volunteer to speak out loud. I only did that when forced.

Things were settling in at school with the other kids starting to get used to the strange Cullen kids. I was infamous as the guy that almost died at school when his twin sister punched him in math class, but human memories fade and children forget. Before long I was back to being the weird Cullen that did not speak, which for whatever reason was a bigger deal than the fact that I had vomited up blood all over Mrs. Marinara's classroom.

Robby and the other kids from the home did not tease me too much about Eliza and what had happened, because they knew Eliza and how she was. They were all afraid of her, as were most of the other students. Not even Eliza's mentee would sit next to her at lunch, although the rest of the kids from the home sat next to the rest of us. Normally that worked out with Eliza sitting on the end next to Lily, but as time went on, Scryan forgave her and started sitting next to her again too.

I started fighting with Scryan as Eliza started wearing him down. At first he was mad because she had made him have a seizure, or really a vision, in the middle of class, which he had been trying to avoid. Plus she had put him in the middle of a scene filled with humans and blood and she knew he was the worst controlled out of the group of us. But they were best friends and he could not stay mad at his best friend forever.

Scryan going back over to the dark side made life harder for me, because I had all of my classes with him. He was supposed to help me with communicating to the humans, especially if something went wrong with my translation program or my cell phone. But the day Jackson and I decided to wrestle in the morning before school and my cell phone accidentally broke, Scryan was not there to help me at all.

I had been wearing my cell phone on my hand, in preparation for school, when Jackson and I decided to go out for some early morning exercise. I should have taken my phone off, but I did not realize how fragile it was. The label said it was stress resistant up to two thousand pounds, but it still cracked in two when Jackson picked me up and threw me back onto the ground. My hand, and therefore my phone, hit so hard that I dented the pavement, and my phone was destroyed.

Allison offered to lend me her phone and all of the other kids did too, but none of them had my program on it. And there was no way to get the application on a new phone in time, because it was not publically available. Speech impairments were rare, so sign language translation software was equally rare. My dad had the only copy on his laptop and he happened to be out of town that day, so Uncle Jasper made me go to school without it.

It should have been fine, because Scryan should have translated for me. But instead, he was goofing off the whole day. He found that most of his teachers never paid attention to him and that he could zone out in his visions for the duration of the class, just as long as he passed their tests. He could even sometimes come out of the visions at key times to react appropriately to the teacher and other students, further reducing his risks of being caught. And there was a major advantage to spending the school day in the future: he got to be home twice.

I had to spend my afternoons at speech therapy, but Scryan spent his afternoons running around outside his house with the other kids. They would laugh and play sports and come up with cool adventures to have. Eliza was still grounded, and Kair and Kare always went home to their own time, but at the minimum Allison, Jackson, and Ashley were always there to play with him. Normally Violet, Adriel, Lily, and Aiden would also be there and they had a lot of fun.

By the time I came home from speech therapy, our outdoor playtime was already half-way over, but still I got to spend a few hours with them and I got to spend the night at the Whitlocks. With four, now five, kids home every night, life was always fun at the Whitlock house. We would paint, build grenades and other electronic devices, have epic games of tag, and plan for our next great adventure. Uncle Jasper took us all out camping, hiking, hunting, or snowboarding every single weekend and we all looked forward to those trips throughout the week.

So life at the Whitlock house was good all around, but only Scryan got to live it twice. Instead of spending his time in class actually in class, he was always off in a vision. If it were Monday, he would be going over all of the things we would play in the afternoons, once we were finally outside. He would do that until about Thursday, when he would start pre-living the weekends. He would skip the boring parts, but he would watch the best parts over and over again and each time it felt like he was actually living it.

Why would anyone go to human school when they could be at the beach with Uncle Jasper hunting a pod of whales? Why would he pay attention to the history of the pizza when he could he listening to one of Jackson's war stories? Why would he read a book in English when he could be living the adventure instead? Our parents said that it was good for us to interact with humans and get used to blending in and not feeding on them, but Scryan did not buy it.

It had started after that first vision in math class when Eliza punched me, but from there it had slowly gotten worse. Scryan began to sneak in short visions just to check how the future was shaping up and make sure everything was still on course, like the human students did with their text messages and emails. But as time went on, the visions got longer and more detailed, until he was spending the entire class in his visions and only coming out to walk to the next class.

A few times Scryan had gotten stuck in a really good, or really bad, vision and I had had to pull him by the elbow to lead him to his next class. I was supposed to be looking out for him, just as he was supposed to be looking out for me, only I actually did it. I was staying in his house and he was being nice about it, so covering for him with the humans was the least I could do. I would even use my telepathy to pull him out of a vision when the teacher was asking him a question.

By the time the day came around that my cell phone broke, I thought I had covered for Scryan enough that he would have to come out of the visions for one day and help me, but I was wrong. He spent the entire time looking ahead to a trip Uncle Jasper had planned to take us all on. We were going to Texas to visit Peter and Charlotte and Scryan was so excited that he was not even paying attention to the doom that awaited him in his near future.

The day started to turn bad in history class, when Mrs. Breadstick asked me to tell the class when the pizza was first introduced to North America. I knew the answer, because it was in our homework last night, which I had done during class yesterday, but I could not voice my answer. I knew Mrs. Breadstick was thinking of calling on me for several seconds before she did and what question she was going to ask, so I wrote down my answer on a piece of paper and held it up when she called on me.

'Scryan, I need you to come out of it and help here, or you're gonna get found out,' I warned. But Scryan was too busy chasing horses with Jackson and seeing if they could catch one without scaring it to death, so he did not leave his vision for me.

Mrs. Breadstick and the other kids were staring at me with a million questions in their minds regarding what I was doing, so I wrote another note and passed it to Robby, who sat in front of me.

"His cell phone broke this morning so he doesn't have a translation program today," Robby said, reading from the note.

"Isn't Brandon supposed to be translating for you when that happens?" Mrs. Marinara asked. That was the question of the day.

"Yes, but Brandon is mad at me and giving me the silent treatment today. I started a fight between him and my sister: their dating," I wrote down next and passed it up to Robby. Again, he read it for me.

"Sorry Mrs. Breadstick, but I can't understand him without his program either," Robby added when no one said anything.

"Oh alright, but if you two can't get over your little dispute you're gonna have to switch kids from that commune of yours and find someone new to buddy up with," Mrs. Breadstick replied.

She was satisfied that I had given the right answer and did not want to cause any more attention to be directed at me for something I could not control. She also had no experience with epileptic seizures and plenty with daydreaming kids, so she did not pay any attention to Scryan. She continued on with her planned lecture and did not turn to us again that day. Scryan did not get discovered in history class.

He came out of his visions just in time to walk to math class with me. "Why were you stressing me back there?" he had the nerve to ask as we walked.

'Mrs. Breadstick was about to find us out!' I projected.

"Well she didn't." And he added silently in his head, 'I would've seen it if she were going to, so back off. The visions are really sweet today.'

There was no arguing with him these days, so I shrugged and continued along to class. We took our regular seats next to Aiden and I was very thankful for his translation during that period. Mrs. Marinara called on me three different times and all three times I signed and Aiden translated my answer. This was the one class where it was not strictly necessary, because my answers were numbers, like four and eight squared, which the humans probably would have understood without the translation. But by the final answer, the square root of pi, I was really feeling grateful to have Aiden around. At least one of my cousins my age was a nice guy.

Lily and Aiden were both in my technology class with me, so that went fine and I ended up not even being called on. I did not need to talk in physical education either, because we were just running laps today and the same went for band class, where I spent the whole time playing my flute. Science was alright, because once again Aiden translated for me. But English class was last and that was when the trouble began.

Scryan and I were alone in English, so I did not have Aiden to translate for me; not even Robby was there to help me. Scryan had not seen anything unusual or out of the ordinary occurring during this period, but then again he had not looked since last night. He hated spending time in school and that included his precious vision time, so he would check once and if there were no problems, he would leave it at that.

But this morning Ms. Cinnamonstix, our English teacher, changed her mind about her lesson plan for today. She was going to have us read in class, take a quiz, and give us a lecture about what we were reading, but instead she realized that she had assigned short speeches that were due today. I had been worried about it yesterday back when my cell phone was still working, but Scryan had assured me that our teacher would forget, so I did not give the matter a second thought; he had not seen her remembering at the last minute and I was not the psychic.

And so I was totally unprepared when Ms. Cinnamonstix's thoughts finally shifted from roll call to our reports. By that time Scryan was already off in his visions again, because by chance there happened to be three kids in this class whose last names came after Whitlock alphabetically. Once his name had been called and he had raised his hand, he was out, never to return.

I tried interrupting his visions and projecting, 'Scryan! Snap out of it! Those oral reports are due today after all! You have to give yours and mine or we're screwed. Your dad is never going to let us go to Texas this weekend if he catches you goofing off in school like this!' But it was no use, because Ms. Cinnamonstix called my name first.

"Masen, I randomly drew your name out of a hat, so you can go first," Ms. Cinnamonstix announced to the class.

"My phone broke, so I can't use my translation program today. Sorry," I wrote on a piece of notebook paper and handed her the note.

She read the note before replying, "Alright, Brandon can translate for you."

I transferred the words into Scryan's head, so that he would hear them and snap out. But he was in too deep and he did not even connect that he was supposed to be Brandon. She had not used his real name and his pseudonym was not enough to tear him apart from river rafting with Eliza.

I took the piece of paper back and quickly added on, "Brandon isn't speaking to me: he's mad at me. I caused a fight between him and his girlfriend. He's dating my sister."

This excuse worked this morning in history, but Ms. Cinnamonstix was nothing like Mrs. Breadstick and she did not buy it. "It doesn't matter what problems you two are going through at home. Your assignment was to have an oral report ready for today and his assignment was to be backup for you in case something happened with your translation program," she replied.

I took the note again and this time I wrote, "I have my report written out, but I can't get it spoken orally today, so I'll take the F," and with this note I handed her a copy of the report I was going to give.

"Very well, but you won't be able to make this up. Okay, Brandon, since you aren't willing to translate, you can go next."

Everyone stared at Scryan as I desperately tried to rouse him, but no matter how many times I projected our teacher's shrill voice into his brain, he did not stir.

"Brandon, we're waiting." When Scryan still did not respond, she tried again, "Brandon, do you have your report ready?" Then she looked to me. "Masen, what's wrong with Brandon?"

I shook my head, either to say that I did not know or that I was not going to tell.

"Oh my, didn't that report I got on the two of you mention that Brandon has epilepsy? Is he having a seizure?" she was getting hysterical now, but I shook my head again anyway to try to deny it. "He is! Cathy, can you call the office for me and get help?" Cathy was her favorite student.

Ms. Cinnamonstix was cursing in her head that this had happened in her classroom and was trying to think of what you are supposed to do if someone is having a seizure. She eventually decided that shaking him was the answer, which I could not allow. She would notice how hard and cold his body was and he would react badly if he emerged to being touched by a human.

"No, don't touch him during a seizure," I wrote on another piece of paper as I stepped in front of her, blocking her access to my cousin.

She looked down, read the paper, and asked, "Why?"

"It disorientates him further. Just call his mom and I'll walk him to the office," I wrote when she handed me the paper back.

"How are you gonna walk him to the office?" she asked. I was a lot shorter and wimpier looking than Scryan and in her head, she was picturing me struggling to pick him up.

I did not respond, instead I took Scryan's hand and pulled in the direction I wanted him to move. He almost tripped over the desk in the process, because I was not as good at this as Jackson and Allison were, but he did manage to stand up and loom unresponsively over me.

"Masen, is everything alright with Brandon?" Kair asked as she and Kare came into our classroom. She was thinking about how she had been told that today in this class was the time and place that everything started going wrong with the whole human school plan. There was a reason why she and her twin had to go into the past to go to school with the humans.

I shook my head and projected to the twins only, 'He's in a vision and I can't get him out and our teacher noticed.'

"Oh my, Brandon's seizing again! We need to get him to the nurse," Kare said. 'It's too late to stop it; we can only do damage control now.'

With Scryan's two little sisters assisting and speaking for me, we were finally able to get him out of there and to the nurse's office. Aunt Alice was already there, just waiting for the call from our teacher to come get him. But the trip to Texas still was not off, which meant Scryan was yet to return to reality, so she signed the four of us out of school and led Scryan to the car, still in the vision. He was not in trouble with his parents this time because it was the first time it had happened since that day Eliza punched me in math class. They had not realized yet that he was doing it on purpose and neither Eliza nor I told, out of loyalty, so he was in the clear for now.

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><p>Author's Note: Please Review!<p> 


	42. Book3 Jasper ch15

Jasper's POV:

The next few months were calm with nothing overly eventful occurring, until one day when I was out hunting mountain lion on the outskirts of Houston. I came across the scent of another vampire, although it was weak. It had rained earlier that day, so the trail had almost been washed away, but there was just enough left for me to follow.

I followed the scent to a makeshift camp out in the wilderness. There were three newborns and one older vampire and the older one was in charge. I crept up on them, slowly infusing them with peace, serenity, and calmness, so that they would not realize anything strange was happening. I stayed downwind and let the lethargy and grogginess slowly wash off of me and onto them. All of the time I have been spending with the humans lately was really helping to improve my artificially induced sleep.

The four vampires were practically comatose by the time I finally approached and made my presence known. I did not want to fight and this was the easiest way for me to incapacitate so many at once. I used to do this to vampires back in my days with Maria, but my powers were newer and weaker then, so I was only able to incapacitate one vampire at a time; maybe two on a good day towards the end of my time with Maria. But thanks to my time as a vampire school teacher, I now had practice knocking out a whole room full of naughty vampires.

The vampires were frozen in place, sitting or standing too peacefully that they looked odd. None of them had enough training with human things to think of lying down when they felt sleepy, even though I had let it come on so slowly that they had plenty of time to do so. Sometimes I find it odd how quickly a newborn forgets all of the things that are instinctual to humans, simply because they are not instinctual to vampires.

They were completely incapacitated and I could have killed them all without getting so much as one bite, but like I said, I did not want to fight. I simply wanted to claim my territory and keep these creatures away from my humans. There were tons of newborn armies roaming these lands and claiming territory for themselves and Houston was a valuable piece of property, so I was somewhat surprised that no one had claimed it before. But then again, it was still a new city and was just now getting large enough to be worth bothering with.

Now that it was desirable, it was inevitable that other vampires would move in. Then other armies would challenge the first set for the land and the wars would start. Houston, and my human family right along with it, would be locked in the middle of a never ending sedge by mythological creatures which they would be powerless to defend themselves against. My family would be put in danger by their very presence.

"Greetings, my name's Jasper," I announced once I was standing in the middle of them. I reach my hand out and touched their leader on the shoulder, exerting my dominance over him. "This is my territory that you've wandered into. You probably weren't aware of it, so I thought I'd give you a warning and let you go. Don't cross me, because I'll knock you out faster than you can blink an eye."

Of course they were still incapacitated, so they could not in fact blink their eyes at all. I had the lethargy on thick, but not so thick that they could not hear me. I knew from my experience with the children that this exact level produced the best results when drilling submission into subjects. Anymore and it would be so strong that they would have trouble processing my orders. Any less and they would have an iota of freewill and try to resist.

"Now if you'll agree to a peaceful meeting, I can go ahead and lift my power over your minds and we can have a nice friendly chat," I said looking at each of the four vampires in turn. I could feel the newborns trying to fight me and resist, but it was their leader who was the most fearful. Only he might have the experience to know that a power as strong as mine was unusual and something to be feared. He might even fear me enough to run away if I let him go now.

"You, what is your name?" I asked staring down into the bright red eyes of the leader and slowly lifting the lethargy. No one liked their emotions being whipped around too quickly, so I took my time, adjusted his emotions slowly, and waited for the response.

"Rafael," he answered, just as soon as he was able.

"Is this your army, or do you have a leader elsewhere?" I asked.

"We have a leader."

"Named?"

"Emilio. There is another vampire like me and we each have three newborns to control and Emilio tells us what to do. There are just the nine of us," he replied, giving too much information away. If I was his leader, I would kill him for treason, but as it was, I was the one making his tongue loose so I let his slip slide. Although, he should have at least made me torture him a bit first; it was only right after all.

"Ah, I know him in the future. He won't know to avoid me yet. Tell me, is he still occupying the lands south of here?"

"Yes. He told me to scout out Houston to see if he should make a move on it. It's growing."

"Yes, it is growing, but it's already mine."

"Where's your army?" he asked with his first hint of defiance.

The lethargy had slipped a fraction, so I increased it, letting it seep back into his bones until it was at just the perfect level again before I answered. I put on my most gruesome face, put fear into this vampire, and said, "I don't need one. I can defeat your entire army single handedly."

"Because of your gift?" he asked when he recovered from his near panic attack. I do not think he even realized that I was helping him return to his previous calm demeanor.

"That helps, but even without it, I'm a trained veteran of the newborn wars in the South. I was born here into my life as a vampire to be a soldier in these wars, but my creator did not realize then just what a monster she was creating. I have survived countless battles," I said, pulling back my collar so that he could see the scars on my neck. He did not understand what he was seeing, so I pulled up my sleeve on my free arm, the one I was not touching him with, and showed him the much lighter pattern of bites located there.

"How many have you killed?" he asked in disbelief.

"At least one for every bite. A few vampires got in two bites, but far more didn't get in any. This was all before my powers were fully in of course. I haven't been bitten in thousands of years."

"The wars haven't been raging for thousands of years." He would have spat it at me, but as it was, he barely whispered it. It was not much fun this way and normally I would lift my influence to make it more sporting. But there were three newborns present and I had too much at stake to chance it. After all, I was still in para with my twins and I would not risk their safety for all of the fun, glory, and gloating in the world; just one well aimed punch could cause a miscarriage.

"I know. And I won't be born into them for a few years yet. I've come back from the future to protect myself and my human relations from any dangers they might face. I'm very powerful then and many vampires would seek to defeat me anyway they could and I'm not the only time traveler," I said. I wanted to make him over estimate my powers and keep him guessing as to just how much I was capable of.

"The Volturi will stop you," he said, probably assuming that the Volturi had the other time traveler.

"They're dead in my time. A member of my coven led Caius into a trap in the north. They ran right into werewolf territory and Caius was destroyed, but the other vampire was left unharmed. Losing Caius weekend the Volturi and Marcus was practically begging for his death. Aro tried to resist, but another member of my coven destroyed him and his Guard. My coven rules the globe and makes the universal laws for my kind in the future. They're holding down the fort while I spend some time guarding myself."

Rafael was in shock and disbelief, not wanting to believe that the Volturi could be defeated and that he was looking into the eyes of the very vampire responsible for that defeat. It was true that I did not succeed on my own and I am not even our coven leader, but by germinating the first egg, I started the war. And I am the leader of the Whitlock family, and he did not need to know the specifics; he just needed to know to fear me.

"We didn't know. We'll go and never come back, if you'll let us. Should we spread the word of your greatness?" he asked, finally coming to his senses.

"Of course you didn't; all of the fortune tellers are in my family. You'll never come back and you will spread the word of my greatness. But do try to keep it a secret from the Volturi; their past selves wouldn't take too highly to news of their deaths," I said.

I was somewhat worried that what I said could get back to the Volturi, but then this vampire will probably never live to come face to face with them. I knew for a fact that Emilio's coven was wiped out by another before I was changed. I knew because Emilio was the name of Maria's creator and mate. His was the name she screamed when I took her to bed all of those times. He was the one she loved and the reason she could never love me; why she could only use me.

Besides, if I said anything that would change the future, it would have already been changed and I would have warned myself not to do this, via my girls.

"What makes you think Emilio will agree to keep this secret for you? The way I understand it keeping secrets like this from the Volturi is a death sentence waiting to happen."

"I know Emilio because he's my ally. In fact, he changed the vampire who changed me, so I'm loyal to him. I've outgrown him and my creator, so that they no longer control me, but we're still friends and we still have respect for each other. There's a place in my coven for him and it involves more power than he currently has. I need someone to control this region while I control the world, don't I?" I lied, because I did not want to let information of his untimely death get back to Emilio; it might change the future if he knew.

"How is it you have such a strong coven?"

"We were related as humans. There is a line of humans in this city that has already produced many humans with talents and will continue to produce vampires with talents. My coven protects them and harvests from them. If you pluck them off too early, before they have children of their own, then the talents die out. But, if you wait until they reproduce and take them a little bit older, the powers flow freely," I lied. I was not about to tell these vampires the secret of the eggs, because the world was not ready for that yet.

"What should I tell Emilio to do when I get back to him? Should we help you guard the city?"

"I don't need help within the city, but go ahead and spread rumors of me. Not that I defeated the Volturi, but that I'm a super powerful amazingly skilled warrior and any vampire who takes a human from my land is dead. No warning will be given. I consider these people my cattle and I will protect them as my own personal property," I replied. "I'm going to let you all go now, but I do not want anyone to so much as think about attacking me, or you're dead. Do you understand?"

I looked at each newborn and studied their compliance with my demands before finally turning to the leader once more. "Take your men and go," I said dismissing him.

They left and I went back to the Jackson homestead. When I got there I found Kair and Kare there playing on the grass out front with Mariam and Mariel. "What are you two doing here without me?" I asked.

"We were waiting for you to tell you how well you did," Kare exclaimed, jumping into my arms.

"Yeah, because of you the vampires stay clear of this city for years," Kair added while I bent down to pick her up in my free arm.

"Is that why I don't ever remember any supernatural creatures running around here when I was human?

"Yep," both girls replied simultaneously.

And so it seems that my efforts would pay off and the vampires would be scared away from Houston for years to come.

Z

Author's Note: I uploaded this chapter last week to post, but somehow I overlooked actually posting it. I didn't notice it wasn't up until today, so here it is now.

Please Review!


	43. Book2 Masen ch15

Masen's POV:

Scryan's mom dropped us off at their house and went back to work, while his dad let us play football outside until school let out. His twin sisters had gone back to their own time, so it was just the two of us. His parents were too busy making preparations for the big trip this weekend to figure out that his vision in class was anything other than an accident and I sure was not going to tattle on him and get him and Eliza mad at me; not to mention that my best friend, Allison is his big sister and might side with him. And so I went along with the hustle and bustle of trip-related chores that evening.

It was only Thursday and we were not leaving until after school on Friday, but everything had to be done before midnight tonight, because my aunt and uncle had a personal day scheduled for Friday, starting at midnight. They have been having a lot of those lately. And while they cuddle, the Whitlock kids get spread out among our extended family. Jackson went to the Hale's, Ashley went to the Cullen's, and the twins went back to their own time, which just left Allison and Scryan.

Allison and Scryan normally come over to my house when both their parents are busy, but the separation between me and Eliza made that a little difficult. So instead of the four of us playing together peacefully, or not so peacefully, at my house, Allison and I were stuck with my mom at the new blood manufacturing facility. Eliza and Scryan got to go to my house with Dad and do whatever they want all night until school starts tomorrow, while I stood to the side of the lab bench and watched Allison give Mom scientific instructions.

Allison thinks my mom is about as interesting as a snail, so she was not too happy about being left with her. Normally Allison focuses on the fact that my mom is pretty good with following her instructions and perfectly willing to do all of the menial labor involved with whatever her current project is. With all the time she spends at school and playing at home with the other kids, projects like her new flavor of synthetic blood, would never get completed without my mom's help. But the new flavor project was already completed, taste tested, and being mass produced. The project they were now working on was for Eliza, of all vampires.

Eliza has been going to therapy after school since she punched me in the middle of math class. It was part of her punishment and Dad already had to drop me off for speech therapy, which was in the same medical complex, so she was not able to weasel out of it, the way she normally does with unpleasant things. And what was even more surprising, was that she was actually making progress, according to her therapist and Dad.

At first Eliza had trouble thinking of anything she could say to her therapist that would not give away the secret existence of vampires or the fact that she can read minds. When she got tired of giving the man the silent treatment, she started with small talk, and eventually she began to tell him about her life and our family, just leaving out the non-human parts. But then one day she let slip that all of the voices in her head were bothering her, which led to a diagnosis of some rare form of schizophrenia and the beginning of her "progress."

Eliza's therapist started off by trying to prescribe human medications, which could not possibly work on a vampire, because we cannot digest the pills. It took some time, but after some well-placed hints from Eliza, he gave up on pills and discovered the link between the number of people present and the number of voices in her head. He prescribed meditation in the forest, which led to her griping about how annoying the thoughts of crickets and frogs are, because you know, they each only ever think a couple of thoughts. Oooh, there's a juicy fly. Ribbit, better puff out those cheeks to attract a mate. Oooh, there's a juicy fly. Ribbit. There's a female, time to mate. And cricket thoughts are even more annoying than frog.

Mom ended up just shielding Eliza from all the forest creatures, which led to a particularly moody and annoyed Eliza, because she was not used to her sixth sense being cut off. But after a while she got used to the thought depravation and began to enjoy it, which for some unknown reason, calmed her down and made her have less aggressive thoughts and tendencies. Mom could not shield her all of the time, but just the six hours at night of shielding seemed to be making a difference.

Unfortunately for Allison, Mom wanted to try the human way, and actually make a medicine for Eliza that might stop the voices the same way Mom's shielding does. And that is why Allison and I were stuck, bored out of our minds, at the blood manufacturing plant in the wee hours of Friday morning. All of the scientific equipment needed to synthesize the synthetic drug, was here, and once the drug was made, it would have to be mixed into synthetic blood for Eliza to drink, so this plant was the only logical place for this project to occur and Allison was the logical person to ask for help.

Allison was not exactly happy about helping out on such a boring project, like helping my sister, but the adults, especially my mom, had gone along with enough of her projects that she felt obligated. And so I spent four very long pre-dawn hours waiting as Allison outlined which types of chemicals to synthesize that would be most likely to cause the desired mind-reading inhibition in Eliza. It was a difficult subject, because drugs generally do not pass the blood-brain barrier in vampires, which is why we are resistant to alcohol and snark.

And once they had settled on which chemicals to make, Allison had to write out a very long list of instructions on how to make them, which took another three hours. It was already time for school when Allison wrote the last line and said, "And if these don't work, we can go back to the drawing board when I get back Tuesday."

It was a long weekend, because of some Canadian holiday, so we did not have to be at school Monday and were not planning on coming back until six in the morning on Tuesday. That would give us all just enough time to change clothes and grab our backpacks, while optimizing our vacation time. But first, we had to make it through one more day of school.

Scryan was on his best behavior for the day, because all of the kids had heard about his seizing episode yesterday and he did not want to draw any more attention to himself. He even translated my oral report for me and Ms. Cinnamonstix was nice enough to accept it a day late after all. My dad really should have gotten me a new cell phone and uploaded my application for me last night when he got back from his trip, but he did not get around to it, instead choosing to help Grandpa Carlisle with some petty territorial dispute among the nomads. I mean they are nomads; they cannot be claiming food and expecting it to still be there when they wander back into the area five years later. The whole thing was ridiculous and should not have taken all evening and there should have been plenty of time to get my phone before the stores close. He made it back in time to pick up Eliza and Scryan from the Whitlock's at midnight, but no, he could not be bothered to buy a cell phone before eight.

The nomad just had to make a scene and threaten to decimate the tiny little city of Winnipeg. Who even cares about Winnipeg anyway? Most people do not even know where it is. Anyway, I did not get a new phone and instead I was forced to spend my evening packing for the trip and my morning being bored to death at the blood plant. I probably should have ran to the store and bought a phone by myself instead of playing football with Scryan until the other kids came home. But then how was a kid who looks like a twelve year old and cannot talk, going to walk into a human store and buy something requiring a credit card and a monthly contract? It might have worked if Scryan had agreed to go with me, but no, he wanted to play football and he tends to get his way, because of his power and all.

At least Scryan did agree to translate my speech for me and Ms. Cinnamonstix decided to accept my excuse that my translator had a seizure and not give me an F. Although, she was upset that I had not informed her immediately about the seizure and had lied to cover it up. But then humans are easily fouled, Scryan said that I said I did not notice the seizure, and he played with the odds of the future until Ms. Cinnamonstix buying his load of bull was suddenly a very likely scenario indeed.

Scryan totally botched my speech on purpose, by adding in a lot of ums, likes, pauses, and fake stutters, but then all of the other kids that went today got nervous and flopped, so my speech fit right in with the bunch. Scryan's own speech, on the other hand, was the only flawlessly delivered one in the class. Thus he got a very loud round of applause from the class, but a suspicious look from our teacher, who thought that it was very strange that he had done so well with his own speech after murdering mine. Plus the convenient seizure gave him an extra day to prepare, so she made a mental note to watch him more closely from now on. But being human, and susceptible to Scryan's power, she forgot two minutes later and everything went back to normal.

And then the school day was over and I was off with the Whitlocks on an exciting trip to Texas and Charlotte and Peter's ranch. Kair and Kare went home to their own time, and I piled in one of the vans with the other four Whitlock kids. Uncle Jasper double checked that we had all of the blood and gear we needed for three and a half days of adventure, Aunt Alice checked the future one more time, and we were on the road.

The drive to Texas was far from uneventful, although we did all sit nicely and chat quietly until Nebraska. Five hundred years ago a fault-line, which the humans did not know existed, opened up, creating a massive plateau in the north with a spectacular waterfall where it met Run-Off River. Run-Off River was a filthy man-made thing that transported tainted water from Nebraskan wheat and soybeans fields, east to be re-used in the rice patties of Illinois. And since humans like to dam rivers, even manmade rivers, there was a giant dam sitting right on the fault-line, harvesting energy from waterfall. The whole thing was a recipe for disaster the next time a large earthquake hits the Nebraska fault, but then humans never were very good with planning for the future.

Uncle Jasper slowed down as we approached the humongous dam, his attention being drawn to two humanoid figures standing on top of it. I recognized their thoughts before I could make out their curly blond hair and pixie-like faces. They were waiting for our van to get within vampire eye sight, signaled by Uncle Jasper putting on the breaks and pulling over to the side of the road, before they dived into the polluted waters around a hundred feet below.

"Alice honey, why are Kare and Kair diving off of a dam in the middle of Nebraska?" Uncle Jasper asked as we watched the twins surface and begin their swim towards us and the bridge where the freeway crosses over Run-Off River just downstream of the dam.

"I'm not sure," she replied searching the future for the answer and thinking that this would explain why she had not happened to see our passage through this state. North Dakota and South Dakota, she had seen, but then nothing until we arrive at the ranch in Houston. "I thought it was White Cloud. He was begging to come with us and I thought Nessie might give in and meet us along the way. Or it could have been the local Native American Shifters causing the holes in my vision. The Navajo like to fly this way sometimes…"

"Scryan?" Uncle Jasper asked, wondering why the other psychic in the family had also failed to mention that this might happen.

"Sorry Dad, I was concentrating on the future in which Masen gets eaten by a werewolf and his parents rush down here with Eliza. They're so busy crying that Eliza and I spend the whole week river rafting before they remember they have a second daughter. It's great," he answered as Kair and Kare climbed up from the river and onto the bridge. Eliza was stuck back home with our parents, unless of course I get attacked by a werewolf, which was unlikely, given how far south we were.

"Hi Mom. Hi Dad," the twins said in unison. They were shorter than I had ever seen them before and dripping wet with filthy water tainting their hair an ugly muddy color.

Jackson, who was in the middle seat on the passenger side, opened his door and scooted over, allowing Kare and Kair to climb in beside him. This was only an eight passenger van and there were now nine people in it, with four squeezed onto the middle row of seats, but the twins were each very thin and only took up one seat between the two of them. Plus Jackson and Ashley, who were also in that row, were both really skinny, so there was enough room to re-close the van door, which is just was Kair did.

"We're in," Kair announced.

"You can drive now Dad," Kare added.

"Not so fast you two; I thought you said you couldn't come with us this weekend?" Uncle Jasper asked. He had turned around to look his daughters in the eyes. He was well aware of the fact that because of their small size, these girls must be younger than the ones who had said they could not come, but he phrased the question that way anyway.

"We can't come in the future. We came now," Kare replied.

"We're seven hundred fifty-eight years old. You and Mom are busy on your honeymoon in Philadelphia," Kair added, thinking about her parents' renewing their wedding vows and the fact that her dad likes to be told when they are from when they show up out of sequence in the timeline.

"If we're in Philadelphia, how did you get to Nebraska? Who's watching you?" Uncle Jasper asked.

"You and Mom are watching us. Right now," Kare answered thinking about the vow renewing ceremony and her parent's unusual lack of attention in her time, which had given her and her sister the chance to slip away unnoticed. Then she started thinking about the accidental parity her parents had had that had led to the impromptu decision to renew their vows.

These thoughts made me wonder if there was another little Whitlock in store for the future and how in the world my aunt and uncle, who were normally so very careful, had had an accident. If that were true, it would mean that my parents were the only adult couple in our extended family to not have an accident. It would be beyond awful if that happened; my parents would probably have another Eliza to torture me. The horror. But the conversation was still going on around me, so I went back to listening and resolved to ask the twins more about this subject later, when it was just the two of us.

"We ran here," Kair added.

"By yourselves?" Uncle Jasper asked for clarification.

"Yep," the twins replied in unison.

"You do know that the two of you are grounded for this, right?" Uncle Jasper asked.

"Definitely," Kair answered.

"Definitively. Right when we get back," Kare added, thinking that her punishment when she returns will be minimal, because her future parents will still be distracted by their grief from the loss of their egg. Somehow the accidental parity had led to a dead egg.

Kair was thinking about the fact that before they were born, their father was less skilled at disciplining them, especially when it came to time travel. He would eventually learn that to teach the girls not to do dangerous things like this, they have to be grounded both when they get back home _and _whenever they show up. The girls had just recently discovered this period of time in which their father had yet to discover this rule and were intent on exploiting it as long as possible.

"We should probably get moving again, before the humans notice," Jackson said, taking some of the attention off of his sisters.

"Fine, but we're talking about this more when we get there," Jasper said, preparing to merge back onto the freeway.

"You know Dad, we could be having this vacation without you and Mom. At least this way you can watch us," Kair said, reciting the phrase that had convinced him to let them off the hook last time they had pulled this; a time that was in the future for everyone involved. It was true that she could hypothetically go on a vacation alone with her sister, but she was thinking that it would not be as much fun without the other kids around.

My aunt and uncle did give Kair and Kare a lecture about safety and not running off to the past by themselves when we arrived, but then they let us all go play while they got caught up with Peter and Charlotte. They had a set of human hosts and my aunt and uncle spent the majority of their time slowly getting Ashley accustomed to them. My aunt and uncle were hoping to complete the process by the time their own eggs emerge and thus left the rest of us kids to enjoy the Texas countryside with minimal supervision. Sure we had orders to stay on their land, and we did, but they had a huge ranch with tons of things to do, like river rafting and kayaking. Jackson even managed to jump on the back of a wild horse, before it bucked him off and galloped away kicking and neighing like it had just been attacked by a creature of the undead.

It was not until Monday night, when everyone else was packing, that I managed to get Kare alone, to ask her about what I had overheard in her thoughts when we had first picked her up in Nebraska. 'Did your parents really have an accidental egg? How's that possible?' I asked.

We were outside, picking up the remains of all of the sports equipment we had destroyed over the course of the long weekend, so we were alone and out of eye sight of the others, but not out of vampire hearing range, so we had to be quiet. Thus Kare looked at me in response, but did not speak out loud. 'Yeah, there was a whole batch of egg-control blood that went wrong. There was plenty of blood in it, but no egg-control. It got shipped out to Mom and Dad and Peter and Charlotte, and a few of the nomads. They all had accidents and Jackson was able to trace the source back to one bad batch.'

'Please, please tell me my parents didn't get any of the bad stuff,' I begged.

'They did. I heard your mom took one look at her egg, popped it in her mouth, and bit it in two.'

'Seriously!? What'd my dad do about that?'

'When he had his egg, he handed it over to your mom and she destroyed it too. My dad was mad at them and still isn't talking to them. He was even mad that Mom told us about it, because he said we were too young to know. That's why they weren't invited to the wedding.'

'Did my mom say why she did it?' I wondered.

'She said they're having grandchildren now,' Kare thought shrugging her shoulders.

'So what happened with your parents' eggs? Hosts?' I asked.

'No. The egg died.'

'Was it because of the blood? They started taking the good stuff again, not knowing about the parity?' I asked.

"No. Allison says that egg-blood has no effect on parities once they've begun. It only stops them from happening in the first place,' she thought.

'Then how?'

'Only Mom had an egg. It was really weird, because Peter and Charlotte and all of the other couples that got the bad blood; they all had a pair of eggs. And then Mom's egg looked funny. And it felt too light, like there was no substance to it. And then Mom and Dad held it up to the light and it was translucent, as if it were hollow.'

'Why? What happened?' I prompted as I continued to pick up the debris that littered the lawn.

'Dad took the egg and implanted it in a human, same as he would any egg. There was a big fight about it, because Mom didn't want to and it was her egg and then Allison kept insisting that something was wrong with it and she wanted to test it.'

'How was he able to implant it, if your mom didn't want to? It was her egg; the law gives her the right to choose.'

'Yeah, that's what Aiden said, but Mom had already agreed to put it in a flow-cell. She was gonna leave it in there forever, because a couple millennia ago, Mom and Dad had agreed to do that with any accidental eggs. Dad didn't decide until right then; he stole the flow-cell and implanted the egg in the first human he could find. Mom saw him doing it and went after him, but she had seen how much this meant to him and it was already too late, so she let the human live, because of how much she loves Dad.'

'What happened to the egg?'

'It came out the other end…of the human. It was a couple days after Dad had run off with it, after Mom had found him and told him it was alright, and before they had come home. He changed the human's diaper and there it was, in the middle of the…feces. Yuck!'

'No way! Eggs don't do that!' I proclaimed in disgusted horror.

'Well this one did. It passed right through. Mom and Dad brought the egg back home and put the human back where they had gotten it from. The human parents were pretty happy about it. It was on the news.'

'What was wrong with it? Didn't anyone know?' I asked referring to the egg, not the human.

'Allison did lots of tests. She has this big new machine that can look inside eggs and see the little embryos. When she looked at this egg it was empty. Everyone was shocked, because eggs have to have embryos: it's the embryo that makes the shell. No embryo, then no shell, so where did the shell come from? There was a lot more fighting then, 'cause Allison wanted to cut the shell open and get a DNA sample. Some of us thought there wouldn't even be any DNA left to sample and Allison was wasting her time. Mom wanted to do it. Dad knew the egg was dead and all, but he didn't want to cut it open and give up hope. It took him a few days before he let Allison do it.'

'Well?' I prompted when her thoughts paused for a minute.

'Well the egg was completely empty, except for some membranes and an umbilical cord that was tiny and all dried up. Allison got some DNA off of it and confirmed it was Mom and Dad's. Vampire cells don't give up their DNA easily, but she has some new fancy technique and a bunch of the latest equipment and she got the DNA. Her initial test confirmed that there had been a unique vampire in that egg, but she didn't find anything wrong with the baby. She was obsessed with it though, so she made us all give her samples to compare it to. That's when she discovered that the baby's power was similar to mine and Kair's. It was on the same flipase locus, just a few alleles down.'

'So the baby time-traveled out of the egg?' I asked in eager anticipation. Now she had moved to pick up a deflated football and I was standing still listening to her story.

'No, I said similar, not the same. Allison says the baby teleported out of the egg. Same time, different place. But the new place didn't have blood and it didn't take the egg with it, so wherever it went, it must've died. Dad didn't take the news very well.'

'That's so sad.'

'Yeah, that's why you can't ever tell them. You gotta promise me that you won't tell anyone about this until it actually happens. You can't even tell them that you knew,' Kare thought. And as she thought this, she was looking me in the eyes.

I did not want to be the one to tell my aunt and uncle that they would lose a baby; I did not want to be responsible for tearing their family apart twice. So I nodded and telepathed, 'I promise. I won't ever tell.'

'Good. It turns out okay though. Mom and Dad don't fight forever. Eventually they both realize that this was no one's fault and they forgive each other and stuff. And then they get all mushy. Ew.'

'Is that why they haven't been watching you so well? How you were able to sneak away?' I asked.

'Yeah. They've been so wrapped up in their own problems and then when they worked things out they decided to have that stupid ceremony and renew their vows. Everyone was making such a big deal out of it too, because they'd been married twenty-two hundred years and hadn't gotten remarried before.'

'Well things must get better. You seem so happy when you go to school with us,' I offered, resuming my earlier efforts to clean up the yard. There were pieces from a broken quidditch broom scattered in and under one of the trees.

'Yeah, things are already getting better. Scryan says everything returns to normal soon. They might even notice we're gone,' she thought scurrying up another tree to retrieve the remains of a hockey stick.

We were quiet for a few minutes, continuing to clean in silence, until Jackson finished packing and came outside to help us.

"Jackson, can you explain to me why you left your surfboard on top of the barn?" Kare asked her brother. The barn did not have any animals in it, being left in disrepair from the previous owners, but it did have a surfboard on the roof.

"Because there weren't any good waves in the river and Mom and Dad wouldn't let me run down to the coast," he replied. "Besides, I broke the nose of it on the asphalt, so it's trash anyway."

"Then throw it in the trash!" Kare exclaimed indignantly.

"Sure thing," he replied, jumping up onto the roof and getting the board.

I could tell that Kare was still mad and wanted to keep arguing, but she dropped it, preferring to get her brother back with some well-placed revenge some other time. She was a bit more quarrelsome at this age.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: So there's a bit of a look at what the future holds in store for Alice and Jasper. Not all powers are safe and some combine to kill the egg; that's what happened to Jasper's egg, only there was no shell remaining as evidence. Please review!<p> 


	44. Book3 Jasper ch16

Jasper's POV:

A year passed and I fell into a routine trapped here in my new life. I missed my wife tremendously and my oldest four children, but Kair and Kare still came to visit me regularly. I grew to know the Jacksons very well and embraced them as my human family; only Mariam and Mariel were more like sisters to me than my grandmother and my great aunt. Monroe and his wife even started referring to me as Uncle Jasper around their children; I say children because there was a new one this year. I even got used to eating mostly alligator and livestock.

As time passed it became obvious to the townspeople that I was here long term, despite my original story that I had a wife and kids to get back home to. Most people accepted me as an adoptive member of the Jackson clan, but not everyone. John Phillips, the same John who had ridden in with his posse looking for his runaway slave, had it out for me. He was a friend of the sheriff and would use that as an excuse to show up at the Jackson family homestead.

Whenever there was news in town, John would make it his duty to personally deliver the news to us. And every time he came by, he made his suspicions regarding me known. He was always snooping around and trying to find out what I was hiding. Several times he came barreling into the barn when the twins and I were hiding inside. We had taken to hiding behind a stack of hay that I had strategically placed on the loft in the barn in front of one of the rear windows, just for his frequent visits.

And it was a good thing I was prepared like that, because one day when Monroe was out fishing and Mariam and Mariel were inside the house, John let himself in to search the barn without permission. We took off out the window and escaped into the woods. By the time he looked out the window, we were well within the forest. It had been a very typically sunny Houston day, so the three of us were shooting off sparkles in every direction, but we were safe within the cover of the trees.

John was always very suspicious of me, but what was worse was that he had begun to notice that I was only around on cloudy days. Whenever it was sunny I would hide in the barn and Monroe and his sisters would say that I was out fishing or hunting. Grandma Jackson even got in on the action and covered for me once, racing out of the kitchen to shoe John away. Monroe considered banning him from the property, but then he had not done anything wrong, so it would only draw more suspicion.

And so I was forced to make nice with John and plaster on a fake smile on all of those rare cloudy days when he would stop by, like today.

"Good afternoon John," I greeted before he even got off of his horse. "What brings you by today?"

"Mr. Koch has a sell on cloth today. He just got in a big shipment from the factories up north and he asked me to let all of the folks 'round these parts know. I know how yall like to sew and what not, so I thought I'd come by and tell ya," John replied, getting off his horse.

See what I mean? This has to be a new low for him; coming by to tell me about a sell on cloth, yeah right. He was coming by to check up on me and running out of excuses.

"Now that you mention it, we could use some more cloth. I'm making a dress for Mable and I could use something to match this light blue for the skirt. Can you check if he has any of that new fancy dark blue?" I asked, holding up the light blue bodice I was working on for Kair. Of course I could not tell him I was making it for my daughter, so I said it was for Monroe's baby girl.

"That looks a might big for Mable," John said, getting suspicious, again. "It's even big for Monty." Monty was a year and a half now and Mable was three months.

"I'm a slow sewer. I figured I would start big and it might be ready by the time she's into this size," I lied. I was making the dress the size of a four year old, because that was how big the twins have been lately when they have come to visit me. After I made this light blue one, I was planning on making a light purple one for Kare.

"I don't know; you seem to be mighty handy with the women's work. Did you make dresses and things for your own daughters?" he asked.

"No, I was always too busy hunting, fishing, and chopping wood," I answered.

"And just how're your wife and children making do without you. Shouldn't you be getting back to them?" he asked.

This was the question I was dreading, because I had no real excuse for why I would leave my wife and children. I would never leave them if I had a choice.

"She wrote me a letter saying she didn't want me back. She's been having an affair with another man and wants to marry him. She says if I stay away that she can get the marriage annulled," I answered painfully. This was a horrible lie to tell, but it was the only one that made any sense.

"And you're just gonna let some other man have your wife and kids for his own?"

"She said the kids were his," I said and both Mariam and Mariel let out gasps of surprise, even though we had already discussed this story. Even John was shocked into silence, so I continued. "I'd been wondering where they got that black hair from. The guy she was cheating on me with has black hair."

"And what color's your wife's?" John asked.

"Blond," I lied. Genetics were not known is these times, but it was common knowledge that two blond parents typically had blond children.

"Tuff luck," John said. "Did you file a report with the local sheriff?" It was against the law for a woman to cheat on her husband, just not the other way around.

"No, I'd rather my family be happy without me. I wouldn't want my wife stoned."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. As you've pointed out for me on so many occasions, I'm a sissy man and would rather flee with my tail between my legs than see my kids suffer for what their parents do. That's why I left when my wife asked."

"A real man wouldn't let another man take his wife and children from him."

"A real man could catch his own alligator to make his own cowboy boots too, instead of buying the leather. I recognize that hide from a gator I killed a few months ago," I said staring down at his boots. I had found an alligator with a distinct coloring, so it had sold for more. "If a sissy man has to wrestle your gators for you, because you're too chicken, then what does that make you?"

"And how is it that you can wrestle gators just fine, but you're always doing women's work?" he asked, avoiding my question.

"It's simple: I want to do women's work. I can do men's work. I've done men's work before. I just don't want to do that anymore. I like to eat gator and the Jackson's don't, so I hunt my own and sell the excess. There are only so many gator boots and jackets a man can use," I said drawing attention to my jacket and then eyeing my own boots. They were both made out of an unusually patterned alligator that I had caught, skinned, and tanned myself. I even made the jacket and boots myself.

"Those are nice," he conceded before changing the subject. "I thought you left your family to visit your mother?"

"I decided to visit my mother when my wife made it known that she'd like some time apart. I've known about the infidelity all along, but we were trying to work it out. I was really hoping that the newest baby would be mine and that she'd stop cheating on me, but when I got her letter saying that she had given birth to twins and neither of them was mine, I agreed to the annulment."

"And whatever happened to visiting your mother? Why don't you go back to live with her?"

"I did go back. I borrowed a horse from Monroe and rode out to Galveston. But when I got there our old pastor told me that she died years ago and no one could find my address to write. My older brother already settled all of her affairs, so I went to pay him a visit, but we never did get along. I gave him my new address here and the Jacksons have been kind enough to let me stay."

"I guess that means we'll be seeing your pretty face 'round here for a while yet?"

"Yes."

"And will you be moving into the house or staying out in the barn with the livestock?"

"The barn's fine for me. Besides, Bethy just had Mable and with the rate she's going, there'll soon be a whole house full of young'ins. I wouldn't want to take up space I don't need and that could be put to better use."

"Nonsense, once you marry Mariel, you'll be one of the family and have to stay in the house until you build a proper house for your new wife," John said, surprising me.

"Who said anything about me marrying Mariel?" I asked once I got over being flabbergasted. Why would John think I would marry my great aunt? Ew. Is this what the townsfolk think about me staying here? That I am staying here to marry Mariel? The thought was disgusting, but then I began to wonder if maybe I was the mysterious Arizonian that Mariel had run off with; I was claiming to be from Arizona after all.

"No one, but one ought to make a proper wife out of a lady as fine as her. I get that you couldn't before, because of your annulment thing and the cheating wife and kids that ain't yours, but if your marriage was annulled, then you ought to be getting hitch instead of living in sin," John replied.

I puzzled his words in my mind for a few minutes, but they just sounded too bizarre strung together in that order. And then after quite a bit of silence and exhibiting that shocked dumbfounded expression that I do not get to use very often, I realized that this human had just suggested that I was having sexual relations with my own great aunt. I gagged for a moment and my stomach turned, but I clinched my jaw shut and the nausea passed without the expulsion of my stomach contents.

"What makes you think that I've violated Mariel so egregiously?" I asked when I finally recovered enough to formulate a response.

"Well you're living here with her. I know you stay in the barn, but you've got every opportunity to sneak out together. And I ain't heard word of any proper dates."

"First of all, Mariel and I have _never_ been alone together. Mariam or Monroe or Ma Jackson have always been around too. Secondly, I would never do that to _any_ woman, let alone Mariel, who I care for like my sister. Third of all, you haven't heard of any proper dates, because there haven't been any dates at all, because I am _not_ courting Mariel. And finally, how in the name of Sam Houston did you ever come to think such a ridiculous thing?" I asked, letting him feel my anger and sincerity, but only just a little.

"Well it's the obvious conclusion when a man moves into a house with two beautiful single women. And the two of you do make a fine looking couple."

"What?" I spluttered, before forming a more cognitive reply. "Please don't say things like that, because you're gonna make me sick. Ma Jackson's gonna be pretty sore at me if I leave my belly full of her porridge on her porch." My belly was currently full of alligator blood, but porridge sounded better to tell a human and I know that Ma Jackson had made some for breakfast this morning.

"Don't tell me you're not interested in Mariel, 'cause we all know you drove Augie off. Although why you had to have Mariel and couldn't just pursue Mariam is beyond me. I mean most men respect a man and don't go stealing the affections of the lady he's courting."

"You should stop talking before you get yourself hurt," I warned, letting him feel some of the fear and apprehension that he should be feeling right now, although not all of it because I did not want him to realize that it was me doing it. If he had a heart attack or peed his pants, there is a good chance he would notice, although it is a shame that I have to limit myself so.

"I am _not_ courting Mariel, and you would do well to remember that and not mention it again," I continued. "I did not steal Mariel from Augie and Mariel didn't stop seeing Augie for me. Why she stopped seeing him is between her and him and I don't know the answer any more than you do, but at least I don't go 'round spreading wild rumors about which I know not. I have not been courting anyone, because I'm still getting over the loss of my wife. I know she's not dead, but I loved her and those children and it's going to take me a long time to get to the point where I can move on. And it's not fair to any lady for me to court them when I've still got feeling for my wife."

"And what makes you think that there is any mystery to why I stopped accepting Augie's advances?" Mariel asked. "He's a jerk and I just decided that if I can't do better then I'd rather not do at all. Ain't that enough? I think the real question is why does Mariam bother with him?"

"A lady's opinion is enough in my book," I added.

"So let me get this straight," John started. "Your marriage is over, you move to this homestead with two of the loveliest young ladies in existence, and yet you continue to pine over your wife, who loves another man?"

"Yes," I answered simply.

"I don't think I'll ever understand you."

"You don't have to; you just have to stop thinking that Mariel and I are a match. I love her like a sister and even if I was looking to get back on the market, which I'm not, I wouldn't court either of the Jackson ladies."

"Al'ight, so I made a mistake and jumped to the wrong conclusion," John conceded.

"That you certainly did."

"Well if that's the case and you aren't looking to marry and build a house of your own, don't'cha at least want a cabin? A man can't just be living in a barn forever."

"Sure I do, but that requires a lot of lumber and the trees 'round here ain't no good. I've got a couple gator skins I could sell you if you're interested in helping me out, so that I can buy some lumber," I replied pointing to the skins I had drying in the sun. There was nothing special about these skins, but I found that if I tanned them myself I got more money for them.

"Like you said, I man can only have so many gator boots," he said wanting me to think he had plenty of boots, but in reality I knew he did not have the money to buy more.

"Well if that's all, I think Mariel, Mariam, and I need to get ready to go to town. Maybe Mr. Koch can take these skins off of my hands and trade me for some of that cloth," I said, dismissing John and hoping he would leave.

John was wavering, so I sent him apprehension, uncertainty, and encouraged him to leave. He must have finally gotten the hint, because he said, "Well I must get going," and climbed back on his horse.

"Well we could use some more fabric," Mariel said as John galloped away on his horse.

"Let's hitch up the horse," Mariam added, putting down her sewing.

We told Ma Jackson that we were going into town, hitched the horse to the wagon, loaded my skins and some jam to sell, and were off. Mr. Koch ran a general store, so he purchased the skins and jam in exchanged for store credit. The skins always fetched quite a bit, so we were able to get all of our usual supplies and a great deal of high quality cloth. And with his sell going on, we went ahead and splurged on some of the richly dyed fabric. Bright colors were expensive in this time.

I was loading up the wagon, getting ready to leave, when Augustus Allen passed by. Mariel had turned down his advances after I informed her that it was her sister who ends up with him. Augustus was upset at first, but then he quickly turned his attention to Mariam and has been courting her ever since.

"Why hello Mary, it's so good to see you," Augustus greeted.

"Hi Augie," she replied.

"When are you gonna grant me the pleasure of your company again?" he asked.

"Why Augie, we just went on a date two evenings ago!"

"That's two days too long for me. What do you say we go on a picnic tomorrow? I've got lunch free and could stop by your place," he offered.

"I don't mind chaperoning again," I said, encouraging her. Back in these days someone always had to chaperon and Mariel was not interested in chaperoning, because she still liked Augustus herself. She was willing to step aside for her sister, but she just did not want their relationship shoved in her face.

"Al'ight then. I'll fix us a lunch for tomorrow," Mariam replied.

"Augustus, who're these fine young ladies?" I man I did not recognize asked, coming up from behind Augustus.

"Wayne, these are the Jackson girls I was telling you about, Mariam and Mariel. Aren't they just the loveliest girls you ever did see?" Augustus asked.

"Yes they are. It's a pleasure to meet you Mariam, and especially you Mariel," he said taking Mariel's hand and kissing it. Augustus must have already told him Mariam was his.

"Ladies, this is Wayne Logan. He's a business associate of mine from Arizona. He just brought a whole bunch of fine horses over to sell me. Ain't that grand?" Augustus asked.

"You're from Arizona?" Mariel asked intrigued. She must remember what I said about her husband being from Arizona.

"Yes Ma'am. But I'll be in town for another week and I'd love to join your sister and Augie on that picnic they were speaking 'bout," he replied. "If that'd be acceptable with you, ma'am?"

"Yes, it'd be very acceptable with me," Mariel answered and Mariam squealed in excitement.

And so Mariel's first date with Wayne and Mariam's twenty-fifth date with Augustus were on.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Please Review!<p> 


	45. Book2 Masen ch16

Masen's POV:

"What's going on?" Eliza asked Kair and Kare the moment they arrived today for school.

The twins had not even had a chance to think an unusual thought, so I was not sure what she was going on about. Sure the twins did not look the same as when they had left us Friday afternoon, but they never came back right away in their timeline, so I was not sure why my sister would find it so odd that they had aged a little. And Eliza had been on her best behavior lately, because her grounding was almost up and she did not want to get in trouble again; what could make her over react like this?

"Nothing," the twins lied in unison. They were trying to hide their thoughts from me and my dad, but they let some facts slip through.

It had been years for both of them since they were last here, even though it was only three days ago for us. They had promised their dad that they would attention school regularly and they had been keeping that promise up until now. Of course their definition of "regularly" was different than the definition the rest of us held, but they had been here for every single day of school since that very first day.

Their first day of school was the only one that the rest of us would call regular, because it was the only day in which Kair and Kare had stayed for the entire day in one session. On their second day of school and every day thereafter, they arrived at the vans on time and attended their first three classes, but left during snack. There was always another set of twins waiting in the wings for them to leave so that they could replace themselves, meaning that for us in this timeline, their presence seemed seamless.

But snack was not the only seam in the school day of the youngest two Whitlock children, because they also left after lunch. They would go from snack to their fourth and fifth period classes, before staying throughout the lunch hour, but as soon as the end of lunch bell rang, they were gone again. A third set of themselves would replace the second set in order to finish out the day and make it back home with the rest of us, before they would return to their own time period.

Kair and Kare had explained that they were only permitted to be with us for about three hours each day, which was why they left and came back every three hours: their time was up and they had to go home. They had their own lives to live and this was just a hobby for them, which their parents allowed them to indulge in as long as they were home on time every day. So in order to fill one entire school day, they would use three days' worth of spare time.

That means that three days pass for Kare and Kair for every one day that passes for us. True, they tended to cluster their visits in a row, so that from the start of our week to the end, less than a month would pass for them, but there were long gaps in between the months of attendance. On average they tended to let about a year pass before they would spend another month with us and finish another week of school.

With the slow rate of growth of vampire children compared to human children, these gaps in time actually meant that the twins appeared to be aging at a more human pace than the rest of us. The rest of us still looked exactly the same as the day school started, without so much as a millimeter of new hair growth, much less any maturation in bone or facial structure. And so Uncle Jasper let their attendance slide, even though the twins were not keeping exactly to the bargain he had proposed.

It would be normal if a year or maybe even two had passed between when Kair and Kare left on Friday and when they came back this morning, but it was obvious from their thoughts that a much longer period of time had passed. I did not know exactly how long they had been gone, but I could tell that they no longer recognized us immediately at our younger ages. They were used to us being over a thousand years older than them and grown adults, not their equals.

Kare and Kair were trying to concentrate on what they had been up to in school the last time they were here. They had projects due in English class, which they had finished and left in their rooms upstairs in the Whitlock house. They had never lived there before, but they both had rooms and they would leave some of their things there, so that they would not have to carry them back and forth through time.

Backpacks and homework were always left over the weekend, because they did not want them aging, getting lost, or being damaged during the extended periods of time that they were gone. They always came a little early on Monday mornings so that they would have time to get their things before meeting us down at the vans. And if they had weekend homework or a project due the following week, they would make an extra trip back Friday afternoon after school to do it. Last Friday the project had been rather long and so they had had to come back twice after school and had stayed later in the day than they ever had before.

Was that why they had taken so long to come back? They had to work extra hard last week and wanted a break? Maybe they were sick of school entirely and had decided to quit, only they never got around to telling their parents? Were they coming back now to set matters right and announce their departure? No, that could not be right, because they wanted to get to their bags and get to school. There was an urgency about getting to school that had never been there before.

"What about a war? Who dies this time?" Eliza asked immediately. She would often ask her questions out loud so that the person she was reading would self-navigate to the memory she wanted to see; it was a technique that she had learned to help her sort through lifetime memories more quickly. Cooperation made it easier, but she did not need her subject to cooperate, and it seemed she was not going to get it today, because both twins were fighting her.

"No one dies," Kare said. In her mind, she knew that this was the truth, although there was some fear that death could be coming in the future, which was why Alice and Jasper were sending their girls to the past.

"It's not a war; there's not even a battle. It's just a standoff, like the Cold War with the humans," Kair said, looking at her father and pleading with him to understand the history reference he had told her in the future.

Uncle Jasper always saw us from the house to the vans in the morning and waited there with Ashley until we left; now he was slowly walking towards his youngest two children and putting himself between them and Eliza. He was planning on protecting them if Eliza made a single move closer to his babies and he did not care what the girls knew and were not telling us, just as long as they were safe right now.

Kair let her mind wander to the events of the standoff that had occurred so far and I decided to transfer them into her father's head, so that he could know what was going on too. Her thoughts showed nothing more than a bunch of posturing over land and vague threats to the other sides. This was a three sided standoff between vampires, werewolves, and shape-shifters, because with the vampires becoming more organized and subsequently more powerful, the other two types of mythological creatures on the planet felt threatened.

"What's going on here? If the kids are going to school today, we need to get going already," Uncle Emmett interrupted.

"Kare and Kair aren't going," Uncle Jasper proclaimed looking his daughters in the eye and thinking that he was going to get some answers from them before they went to school.

"We'll all just stay home sick," Scryan announced. He had not brought his backpack, because he had not seen himself going to school today, although he still was not sure why or what was going on. He had not even known it would have to do with Kair and Kare until just now.

"They can't all stay home sick; that's too many kids to all come down sick on the same day. The Whitlock kids can be sick, but the rest have to go," my dad announced.

"No, I want answers. There's more to this than they're saying and without me around, you won't know what that is," Eliza insisted.

'I've been living with the Whitlocks, so I get to stay too,' I projected to my dad.

"Masen can't stay if I'm staying and I have to stay," Eliza protested.

'When we were going over human health you said that human sickness is contagious, so that it appears in pockets and often the whole family will be sick at the same time. If all of the Whitlock kids are sick, then I would be too, so I have to stay. Eliza on the other hand, can go to school,' I projected to Dad.

'Enough you two! You can both stay home, just as long as neither of you gets within fifty feet of the other,' Dad thought to us.

Eliza and I were standing only ten feet away from each other, so I scooted back another ten feet and she jumped back and up into a tree, adding another twenty feet to the distance between us. "There, I moved, but he didn't move his share," Eliza complained.

'I'm not the one who hit me in the middle of human school,' I projected to my dad. 'Make her go back the last ten feet.'

"That's not fair, because I already went back twice as much as him," Eliza argued.

'It's not fair that she beats me up and makes fun of me when I talk,' I retorted, again through my dad.

'If you two keep this up you're both going to school,' Dad thought. He was also thinking that we were both right and that we both needed to move back another ten feet. He was serious, about sending us to school, so I scooted back another ten feet.

"Fine," Eliza grumbled and jumped to another tree that was nine feet further back. There was not a tree that was exactly ten feet, so I let the one foot slide.

"Thank you. Eliza and Masen will be staying home as well. Emmett, go ahead and take Aiden, Adriel, Lily, and Violet to school," Dad told his brother.

"Fine, but you better tell me what's going on when I get back," Uncle Emmett replied, waving his four kids into his van, grumbling internally all the while. He had work he had to do today, so he would not be able to come back until after he picked the kids up. And since my dad was staying here with us, Uncle Emmett would probably have to picked up the slack and do my dad's work too, which he was not happy about.

Everyone waited silently while the Hale and Cullen kids climbed into the van thinking about how unfair it was that everyone else got to stay home and they had to go to school. But as soon as the van was out of hearing range, Uncle Jasper spoke up. "Let's go back to my place and discuss this calmly," he said, making a rational approach seem like a really good idea.

My dad nodded and the two adults led us back to the Whitlock house. Uncle Jasper motioned for his six kids to take their seats on the couches and I went to join them, because I of course had a spot too, but my dad stopped me with his thoughts. 'Masen, you're in the dining room. Eliza, you're on the stairs. I still want you two separated.'

The dining room was on one side of the large living room and the stairs were on the other, so once we were in position, Eliza and I were as far apart as it was physically possible to get in this house and still be part of the conversation occurring in the living room. Well Eliza could have gone up another two steps, but I did not say anything, because my dad's patience was already wearing thin.

"Now, what's going on?" Uncle Jasper asked Kair and Kare, making them want to tell him the truth.

"It's nothing really," Kair started.

"You and Mom are just over reacting," Kare continued.

"What are we over reacting to?" Uncle Jasper asked when that was all his girls said out loud. The thoughts of both girls had flashed back to the posturing between the werewolves, vampires, and shifters, but Uncle Jasper was not a mind-reader and all three of the mind-readers present kept their mouths shut and just listened. We were on the periphery of this conversation and if any of us interfered, Uncle Jasper would kick us out, because these were his children and he was in charge.

"Both the shifters and the werewolves are mad that vampires are becoming more powerful and organized and we're taking up too much land with all of the eggs we've been having," Kare said.

"They don't like the vampire population explosion, but the werewolf and shifter populations have also exploded, so the three species are starting to come into conflict, because of overcrowding," Kair added.

Kair was thinking about how the hybrids, including my sister, had caused the shifter population explosion, while the removal of the Volturi caused the werewolf population explosion. The Volturi had been actively hunting the werewolves down and keeping their population small, but Grandpa Carlisle and Aiden refused to do the same, because the werewolves were people too. Her Scryan even had a werewolf friend, having finally met the woman who had helped defeat Caius during the Cullen Volturi war.

"Has anyone died on any side?" Uncle Jasper asked, thinking that this was a way to judge how critical the potential threat was. Both girls shook their heads and Uncle Jasper let out a relieved sigh.

"That's not entirely true. They've met themselves from the future and their future selves said that a vampire dies right before Aiden figures out the solution," Eliza said from the stairs.

Uncle Jasper looked at his girls and silently urged them to tell the truth, having changed his mind about interference from the mind-readers. There was a fine line between being helpful and being annoying and we were now back on the helpful side of the line.

"Well that's what we told ourselves, but we don't know who it was," Kair replied.

"And we do know that it's not anyone in the family or the extended family. It was some nomad off in China or something. She should've never gotten so close to werewolf country anyway," Kare added.

"Alright, so no one has died in your time and your future selves say that only one nomad dies before it's over and peace returns?" Uncle Jasper asked.

Both girls nodded, but Eliza had a question. "Why is it that you've never met your adult selves? You always come to us as preteens, this is the oldest you've been yet, and you're only slightly older when you told yourselves the news of the war. Do you two even survive to adulthood?" she asked.

"Well, do you?" Uncle Jasper asked. He was very emotionally invested in the answer to this question and I could tell that for him, everything hinged on this one answer.

"We think so," Kare answered.

"Our older selves told us that we do," Kair added.

"But your older selves had never seen the two of you as adults either," Eliza replied.

"No, not that we know of," both girls admitted simultaneously.

"So it's possible that you both die right after you come and tell yourselves that everything will be alright and that Aiden has found a solution?" Eliza asked.

"No, Scryan would've seen that," Kair answered.

"The other us told us that Scryan saw it all working out and that no one in the family dies," Kare added.

"They also said that they wouldn't be coming back to see you anymore. They said that this part of the past was going to be off limits to them after the solution, which was why your adult selves didn't come to us on the island to tell us the solution to the war with the Volturi. Now that sounds to me like two time-travelers trying to make their past selves feel better about a gaping hole in your traveling. They've also warned you not to go into the future beyond a certain date, because it's not safe then. I think you die, know you're going to die, and visit yourselves one last time so that you don't feel bad while we all await our slaughter," Eliza concluded.

"No, no one dies," Kare insisted.

"We would've told ourselves if they did. We would've found a way to bring everyone safely to the past, before we would let everyone die," Kair added.

"That's not possible. You can only transport each other," Eliza retorted.

"Well we would've at least saved ourselves by hiding in the past!" Kair exclaimed.

"And we would've told ourselves that we had to do it too," Kare added more calmly, but certain of her statement.

"Isn't that what you're doing now? You're hiding in the past so that you don't get hurt?" Eliza asked.

"Yes, but this is only temporary because Mom and Dad are over reacting," Kair replied.

Uncle Jasper had been listening to this all attentively, but now he put a hand up to silence both sides and asked, "Kair, Kare, do your mom and I only over react for your own safety, or are we hiding all of our children?"

"Just us. The others are adults," Kare answered.

"Even if they're adults, they're still my children and I would hide them too," Uncle Jasper relied.

"They're all really strong and can take care of themselves, so they don't need to be hid," Kare said.

"You over react with us because we're still children. We're weaker and not fully mature and you think that if we did happen to run into a werewolf or a shifter that we would go down as fast as Rosita and Carl. We're strong fighters and we try to tell you that we wouldn't fall that easily, but you freak and tell us to go and not to come back until the date that our older selves said to come back on," Kair said.

"You trust the others to be able to defend themselves if they happen across a stray wolf, but you don't trust us," Kare added.

"Why can't you go straight from when I sent you away, to the future when it's safe again?" Uncle Jasper asked.

"Because then we'd never be in our correct time again and that's uncomfortable," Kair answered.

"We need to be some time else until the correct number of days pass between when you send us away and when we come back. We could spend those days anywhen, but you told us to spend them with you here and now," Kare said.

"Yeah, you want to give your younger self some preparation for dealing with us and our time traveling before you're thrown into raising two time traveling babies," Kair added.

Uncle Jasper thought that this made sense, so he moved onto his next question. "And have you tried going to that date and seeing what happens?"

"No, we don't want to block ourselves out of the date by being there too early," Kare answered.

"Explain?" Uncle Jasper requested.

"Our wormholes have limits to them," Kair started.

"There are only so many wormholes that can physically dock at one spot in space-time at a time," Kare continued.

"We can't go to any one point in time and space more than twice," Kair clarified.

"So if we go now just to check out of curiosity, and we go when we have to be there, then it's full and if something bad happens, then we can't go in the future to fix it," Kare said.

"Dad, you told us not to go to important times and places just for fun or we'll block ourselves out. You yourself had a negative experience with this when you wanted us to help you with something, but we were completely blocked out by our baby-selves already having been there twice," Kair said.

"You also told us not to give away too much information when we time travel, because people aren't always ready for what will come," Kare added.

"That does sound like something I might say," Uncle Jasper said.

Everyone was silent for several minutes while we thought about what had just been said, but it was Eliza who finally broke the silence. "That doesn't seem like good enough proof to me."

"Eliza, you have to put your sentences into context for the rest of us. Not even Masen and I can follow it when you respond to memories not currently being thought about," my dad said. He was speaking out loud for the benefit of Uncle Jasper and the rest of the Whitlock clan.

"Kair and Kare believe their older selves because of proof that they've been offered up. They asked for information on the next death in the family and their older selves knew that they would ask this and had the answer already prepared. They said they had not seen it themselves, but had been visited by an older version of themselves who had been visited by a still older version of themselves, who had been to the future and seen it firsthand. In fact, they say that they visit the scene prematurely twice and block it out, so they can't go back and fix it," Eliza replied. "I don't buy it as sufficient proof, because they could've just made it up in the future and told it to themselves."

"Well, who dies next and when?" Uncle Jasper asked.

"Uncle Edward and Aunt Bella," Kair answered.

"But not for more than a hundred thousand years," Kare added.

Both twins were thinking about the scenario that they had told themselves. My parents will be somewhere very far from here at a date too far in the future for the twins to presently reach. My parents are alone, just the two of them, running through a forest and they get ambushed by a rogue coven hoping to usurp power from the DRV. My parents are killed, partly because they are so old that they cannot defend themselves, and Kair and Kare for whatever reason cannot intervene. The DRV quickly destroys the rogue coven in retaliation, but it is too late and my parents are gone.

"Well, it's not exactly old age, but that is pretty close. I never imagined having over a hundred thousand years more to go…" my dad said. He did not like the idea of Mom dying, but it was so far in advance that he was also comforted by this knowledge. He had always worried that something could happen at any moment to change the future and his lifetime with Mom, but being guaranteed a hundred thousand years of life was right up there with his best case scenarios.

"Vampires turn to dust by two hundred thousand years," Allison offered.

"That's at the latest. No vampire has ever actually made it that long and the petrification process has occurred much sooner in sedentary vampires. I've never even found one who had made it to a full hundred thousand years," Jackson added.

"I think I can live with it. It's not literally forever, but for all intents and purposes, it is," Dad replied.

"And they're the first to go, meaning the rest of us live even longer?" Uncle Jasper asked.

"Yes. We don't know the circumstances of any of the other deaths yet, except Vladimir," Kare replied.

"We let it slip to ourselves that Vladimir will be the first vampire ever to die of old age," Kair said.

"Can you imagine Vladimir, with his history, being the first to die a peaceful death?" Kare asked laughing at the irony. Kair joined in. They both liked Vladimir, but it was his war stories that they liked best about him and those stories did not mesh well with his eventual fate.

"Being a father really changed him," Kair said when she stopped laughing.

This last bit of information was news to us, because as far as we were aware, Vladimir's mate had died thousands of years ago and he had never found another. He was one of the few vampires in our extended coven not implanting eggs, because he had no eggs to implant, since he no longer had a mate. But in Kair and Kare's thoughts, he had a new mate.

"I guess it's not hopeless after all," Dad said. "But still, I would never wish the loss of a mate on anyone."

"I told you that before," Allison said. "When I was a baby I told you that it just takes a few thousand years to get over your mate before you can find a new one. Vladimir just needed a little longer than most."

"Okay, so are we all satisfied regarding this future tiff that will eventually be settled? Can I draw this interrogation to a close?" Uncle Jasper asked, wanting to get on with his day.

"No, I'm not. I don't buy it," Eliza answered.

"And what will satisfy you?" Uncle Jasper asked, thinking that the answer was nothing.

"I want Kair and Kare to go into the future five hundred years from their current time, come back, and tell us what they see," Eliza replied.

"No, that's too dangerous. They already said that beyond a certain date isn't safe until their older," Uncle Jasper said.

"They don't have to stay long. They could flash in and flash out…" here Eliza paused, probably shifting through memories, before continuing, "that's an even better idea: they don't even have to leave the safety of their wormhole. All they have to do is navigate their wormhole to the point in time, look out and take note of what they see, and report back. It's completely safe."

"Unless the enemy develops wormhole decimating weapons or anti-wormhole technology. They could break open the wormhole, pull my sisters out, and kill them," Allison replied. "Why don't we send you off to some dangerous unknown, sit here safe and sound, and wait for you to come back?"

"I agree with Allison," Uncle Jasper said.

"We'll do it," Kair said linking hands with Kare.

"We'll be right back," Kare said, thinking about what her past self had told her. 'You can glimpse at the future through a wormhole, but only do it once, because we don't want you blocking our older selves out. And whatever you do, don't leave the safety of the hole.'

And then there was a faint shimmering of infrared light as they stepped into their wormhole together. The wormhole was always infrared when they left and ultraviolet when they arrived; Allison said it had to do with the Doppler affect shifting the frequency of the light waves in the wormhole. I had just enough time to think, 'That's a pretty wormhole,' and then the twins were back with their ultraviolet wormhole.

"We're back," Kare announced.

"This is werewolf country in five hundred years from our own time," Kair revealed.

"Well no wonder you aren't supposed to travel into the future: I don't want you running around and accidently bumping into werewolves!" Uncle Jasper proclaimed.

'Does that mean we lose the war and the werewolves take our land?' Jackson wondered to himself.

"Excellent point 'Son," Eliza said. "It's our land now, so the werewolves must take it from us during that little itty bitty cold war you mentioned." She was being sarcastic.

"Not necessarily: we're fairly close to werewolf country now. If we sign a treaty with the werewolves, odds are we would vacate this land and hand it over to them," Uncle Jasper replied, starting to get upset with Eliza. He did not like that his twins had just risked their lives by steering their wormhole into werewolf country and Eliza was still being so annoying. He normally chose not to manipulate the emotions of others, but he was about to manipulate my sister into shutting up and dropping it.

"I agree. Carlisle has always said that he would concede land to other species before going to war," Dad added. He was hoping that Eliza would drop it on her own and that Uncle Jasper would not have to intervene.

"Whatever," Eliza replied.

"Look, we can't know the future indefinitely with perfect clarity," Scryan of all people said. "I can see the near future and maybe other psychics can see even further. Kair and Kare can give us some information, but it's not limitless." He had kept quiet until now, but he was ready to end this conversation

"Yeah, we know there's gonna be a rough spot in our future in about thirteen hundred years, but I believe my little sisters when they tell us that everything will work out fine. It's way too far in the future for any of us to do anything about it, so why are we arguing about it? I trust that Kair and Kare will come back and give us more information on the problem when we need it," Ashley said, taking up Scryan's argument right where he left off. They did not finish each other's thoughts often, but every once in a while they would be on the same page like this.

"Dad's satisfied, Uncle Edward's happy, and the rest of us should be too. If not, you can leave," Scryan said speaking directly to Eliza. He did not stand up to her very often, but he was not about to let his friend pick on his little sisters any longer.

"Fine, but can I talk to you in private?" Eliza asked Scryan.

He nodded and the pair of them looked to my dad, because Eliza was technically grounded from Scryan for another week. "Alright, I'll allow it, but only due to the special circumstances. Once you two work this little dispute out, then the grounding is back on until next Monday," Dad said.

With that Scryan offered out his arm to Eliza, who took it, and he led her outside into the forest and well beyond hearing range. Mind reading range is quite a bit further, but they went beyond that too; they went until Scryan's thoughts vanished off of my radar completely.

It was too late to go to school, so we all got the day off and had a snowball war, which was Jackson's idea and was really fun. Eliza and Scryan eventually came back. She went home with my dad and Scryan was too busy insinuating himself into the snowball battle to think about the details of what they had discussed, but from what I could tell they had spent the time rehashing the argument and he had eventually won. The subject was dropped and life returned to normal.

Uncle Emmett and the Hale and Cullen kids all wanted to know what had happened when they came home, so we spent the evening recanting the morning's events. And my dad must have told the other adults, because Aunt Alice came home late already knowing; she had spent the afternoon discussing possible options with Grandpa Carlisle, but in the end it was decided that it was just too soon to do anything.

Z

Author's Note: The additional knowledge on Kair and Kare that Scryan and Eliza have in chapter 2 of Jasper's book also comes from this chapter: that's what those two were discussing when they went out into the forest alone.

This chapter sets the stage for the fourth installment in this saga. I don't feel like writing it presently, although I did write a version of it that I didn't like before I started writing this story. But for those of you who want to know how this saga would end if I continued it on, the fourth installment would center on this cold war between the various types of mythological creature when the Cullen kids are all adults and having children of their own. Eventually a vampire is born with the ability to open wormholes through space, so the Cullens and all the vampires who will willingly go, leave for a new planet. That would be the final end of this story with the HEA.


	46. Book3 Jasper ch17

Jasper's POV:

Mariel and Wayne's picnic first date went well. They had a whirlwind romance and were married within three months; it had to be rushed because Wayne lived out of State. He could not stay here in Texas long term and she could not travel to Arizona before being married, because that would be improper. So they married quickly and Mariel moved away, leaving me with just Mariam, Monroe, Bethany, Ma Jackson, little Monty, and little Mable.

Mariam had been seeing Augustus for a little over a year and he proposed the same day that Wayne proposed to Mariel. She said yes, but it was more because I had told her he was the one than any actual feelings on her part. He was a decent guy and had money and a nice face, but the thing she liked about him most was that he would take care of their future children when she dies early. He was even there for me and her other grandchildren before I died. Knowing that your children would be in good hands and not be sent to an orphanage was very comforting to Mariam and made her untimely death almost bearable.

They had an elaborate double wedding in the spring complete with copious flowers, thanks to yours truly. I had helped Alice with enough weddings that I knew how to decorate for one with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back. I covered the aisles and tables with flowers. I made sure the seamstress made the wedding dresses just right. I made sure the bride's maid dresses did not clash with the cummerbunds of the groomsmen. I even helped stitch lace onto the veil. Alice would have been proud of me.

After the wedding Mariam moved into Augustus's big plantation house leaving me with the Jackson's. The Jackson's were nice people and were aware of my condition without wanting to know too much of the specifics, but they had one major flaw: none of them could open up a wormhole to my girls and pull them through. Only Mariel and Mariam had the power to open up the holes and with Mariel in Arizona and Mariam at the plantation, I would hardly ever get to see my girls again.

The solution to my problem came from my arch nemesis, John Phillips. He had asked why I did not build myself a cabin of my own and that is exactly what I did that summer. I convinced Augustus to rent me a piece of his land that he was not using and built a log cabin on it. It just so happened that this piece of land was the same piece he would later give to his daughter, my mother, and was where I had been born.

The cabin I built was nothing like the ranch house I had lived in as a child or the one that had been rebuilt after the fire. First of all, the land was completely untouched when I first began construction. I had to clear all of the trees and dig drainage ditches so that the water ran around the property instead of flooding it during the rains. I even built a rock foundation for my house to sit upon and I recognized it as part of the foundation from when I was a child. This foundation was preserved in building the ranch house; it was just added onto to expand into its full size.

My cabin was a tiny little two room log construction. One room was the living room and included elements of a kitchen, like a fireplace, table, and a counter, but no one actually cooked or ate in it. The other room was my office and housed all of my books, but it also had a small bed in case humans dropped by. Humans would expect the one room to be a bedroom and my bed to be located in it.

The most human thing I had in my bedroom was a closet and two dressers. I had already amassed a small wardrobe for myself and my girls. On my side I had alligator skin boots and jackets which I had made myself, along with shirts and trousers that I had purchased from the local seamstress. I was just learning to make shirts, but my skills were nowhere near being able to make trousers. On the twin's side, there were sweaters, hats, and scarfs of various sizes that I had knitted as well as a selection of dresses I had sewn, also in a variety of sizes, because I never knew what size they were going to be on their next visit.

I only included one window in the design of my cabin and it was for escape purposes. It was located in the bedroom slash office and it had no glass, so I could jump out it and run if a human came barging into my cabin. Besides, glass was expensive and I was financing this project with alligator skins. It was a small window, but it still let in cold air during the winter, so I installed a pair of shutters to help keep the place warm. I did not need the warmth, but my girls did. As for the main room, it was windowless so that I could have human guests over on sunny days and not have to worry about sparkling.

I cleared some of the land that would later be used for cattle and horses and I encouraged grass to grow. I did not have any animals yet, but I was hoping that the grass would come in by next year and that I would be able to get some livestock. I did not want the livestock for the normal purposes, but I did want an easy source of blood nearby. For now there were plenty of alligators as well as a few rarer animals, such as bobcats, wolves, foxes, mountain lions, coyotes, ocelots, and otters. I tried not to take from any species that I knew would become endangered or extinct later on, but that was pretty much all of the big mammals except for the coyotes and the mountain lions.

Mariam was a short ride away, so I went over and visited her whenever it was cloudy. But more often it was sunny and she would come and visit me. We had regular sewing and knitting circles going and sometimes Ma Jackson and Bethany would come and join us. Of course Bethany had the kids, so they would come too, but that was a lot of people so more often we would all meet at the Jackson plantation if everyone was going.

Kair and Kare would take advantage of Mariam's presence in my cabin and always used those times to arrive and depart. Mariam had suggested that she could still pull the girls out at the planation if no one was around to see, but I vetoed that idea because it was too risky. It was better if my girls waited until Mariam was in a safe, secure, and private location, like my cabin, before pulling them out of the wormhole.

I had of course hoped that I would be home by now; back in my own time with Alice, Allison, Jackson, Ashley, and Scryan. But then I had not come any closer to finding hosts for Kair and Kare. I had tried to keep my interactions with the local human population to a minimum, but then I realized that doing so might be why it is taking me so long to find the right hosts. Maybe I needed to meet more humans and really concentrate on my search efforts.

But what was I searching for? Humans? There are tons of humans and Kair and Kare had said that just any human would not do. What they did not tell me was what exactly was needed in their hosts. What sets their hosts apart from all of the other humans in the world? They had said that the something would prevent them from getting stuck in time during their parasitisms, but how would any human be able to prevent that?

My twins had gotten me stuck in time during my parity with them and I, a vampire, was unable to do anything about it. But at least they were together inside me, so that they will not be separated. Even if I never get out of this time, disgorge my eggs here, and implant them into hosts here, they will still be together; they will still be able to go back to the present together once they hatch.

Now if the same thing were to happen while their eggs were in separate hosts, the girls would be separated. One would go to the future and the other to the past and they would have no way of getting back to each other. The girls would never die, so eventually Kare, who travels into the past, would live long enough to find when Kair, who travels into the future, is born. They may be separated for thousands of years, but eventually they would find each other again, although that was far from ideal because Kare would be stuck by herself for all of that time.

And what is more important is that that scenario does not fit with what I know actually happens. Kare and Kair came to me together as babies and visited me in that wormhole. They were even together and at the same age when their older selves visited me, like when they went to human junior high school with the other kids. They do not get separated in time and Kare is not forced to endure centuries by herself, but why not?

The answer must come from their hosts. There must be something special about the humans I pick that prevents them from being sucked into wormholes. And as I pondered this possibility, my thoughts drifted to Bella. She was a shield and although she was only a mind shield and could not shield from wormholes, there were other types of shields in existence. I knew of physical shields, like Lily, and although I had never met one, I had heard of empathic shields; vampires that could shield themselves from vampires like me.

Was it possible that a physical shield could protect my girls from their own power? Or was there another type of shield out there? A wormhole specific shield? If I looked for humans with one in Houston during my grandmother's time, would I find two such people? That seemed like quite a coincidence, given that I had already met two humans, my grandmother and her twin sister, who were already manifesting their powers. Manifesting as a human was very rare and I would only expect to find four such humans living so closely together if they were all related.

Kair and Kare did say that their hosts were not ready yet, which was why I could not simply take them and go back to my own time. But what if they were not born yet? What if they were Bethany and Monroe's children? Those two spit out another kid almost every year and she was currently pregnant with their third child. Would this new baby be talented? The first two did not seem to be particularly talented, but then how would I know a shield in a human unless I tested them with a wormhole?

Bella seemed normal to other humans and vampires, but it was only when someone with a mental power, like Edward, tried to manipulate her that anyone noticed anything unusual about her. If Mariam tried to open a wormhole and put Monty and Mable inside it, would they suddenly start shielding and block the wormhole? Mariam had only once tried to enter her own wormhole and had fled because of the lack of oxygen; no one had ever thought of someone else trying to enter her wormholes, much less sticking the babies in there. They would die without the oxygen.

Kair and Kare were the only ones who had ever really tested Mariam's wormholes and then all they did was use them to connect to their own wormholes so that they could extend their range of time that they could travel to. They told me once, when I first moved here to the cabin, that it was easier to move through space once they were inside Mariam's wormhole than their own. They said it was strange because that meant that they could get home faster than they could get here, because they would have to move their own wormhole into position to find Mariam when they arrived, but could use Mariam's wormhole to find Peter's ranch in the future when it was time to go.

Maybe I needed to know more about wormholes in order to find the right hosts. I knew that they worked based on the curving and bending of the space-time continuum, but I had no idea how to block one. I did not even understand why there were differences in the types of holes each person could open. Kair's only went to the future, Kare's to the past, and Mariam and Mariel's seemed to be more fluid in the first three dimensions of space. But why were all wormholes not created equal and what was the underlying cause of the differences?

I did not know the answers to any of these questions so I decided that the next time the girls visit me I will sit them down and find out. They may not want to tell me everything they know, because they have been warned not to unduly influence the past with knowledge of the future, but one way or another, I was going to get some answers out of those two.


	47. Book2 Masen ch17

Masen's POV:

My speech therapist was scheduled to be away on vacation for a week, so I finally got an opportunity to ask Robby over. I was staying at the Whitlocks', but I could not ask him over there, because of Ashley. I had originally planned on inviting him over to my house, but everyone, including the adults who ran his group home, had heard about Eliza punching me in math class, so that would never fly. But luckily, Lily wanted to invite her human Megan over too, so Uncle Emmett said I could bring Robby over on the same day.

I asked Robby and he got permission from his home and that is how I found myself over at Uncle Emmett's house with Lily, Violet, and two humans. Aunt Rosalie was still at work, Uncle Emmett was in the kitchen putting together human snacks, and Violet was upstairs doing her homework, so it was just me, Lily, Robby, and Megan.

"Wow! Your house must be the nicest house in the world!" Megan exclaimed looking around. Aunt Rosalie had expensive taste and the gleam off of the crystal decorations was catching Megan's eye.

"Who're all the kids in these pictures?" Robby asked looking at the wall full of pictures just as Uncle Emmett came back in with a tray of sandwiches and apple slices.

"Those are our other kids," Uncle Emmett answered setting down the tray. "Help yourselves."

"Are they grown up now or something?" Robby asked taking a handful of apple slices. Megan did the same.

"No, sit down and I'll tell you," Uncle Emmett replied taking two bottles of water out from under his arm and handing them to the humans. We all sat and he continued, "Lily is my fourth child, not my first. Long before she was born, when her mom and I were young and our love was new, we decided to adopt. We were both adopted and we wanted to return the favor, so we found Nikolai and Larissa and took them into our home."

Uncle Emmett pointed to the old picture of his first two hosts that was hanging on the wall. They were teenagers in the picture and looked very happy. "They were brother and sister and only a year apart in age, but they were also sick, because they were defectives. They had a genetic defect with their lungs and were always coughing and getting lung infections. When Lily was little, they both got very sick and died. But we had Lily and Ro and were pregnant with Violet, so we still had a house full of children."

Uncle Emmett switched to a picture of Lily and Angie when they were babies. "Ro was a year older than Lily and our first biological child. The three girls did everything together and our family was perfect." Now he was looking at a picture of Lily, Angie, and Violet when they were a few hundred years old. "We had many happy years together, but then there was an accident and Ro died." He pointed to a picture of Angie by herself taken not long before she died. "We couldn't stay living in that house with all of the memories, so we decided to move here after the funeral."

"That's so sad," Megan said, holding her half eaten slice of apple in her hand. The story was so sad that she had stopped eating.

"Yeah," Robby agreed. I had told him before that Lily and Violet had had an older sister who died, but I had not told him about Larissa or Nikolai. Why would I?

"Our family's strong, so we'll be okay. And my wife and I've decided to adopt again, to fill the empty hole in our lives. Hopefully we can do some good," Uncle Emmett said.

"They want defectives again, like with Nikolai and Larissa, and I told them you'd make the perfect sister," Lily told Megan.

Like Robby, Megan was one of those kids who was not expected to make it past forty. She had been labeled as a defective and placed in the system by her biological parents. She was not sick at all now, but she had too many repeats in a certain gene and so was guaranteed to suffer from a neurodegenerative disease when she gets older. They had made some progress in treating this disease, but then splicing became popular and they just spliced it out of existence instead of bothering with a cure. But the number of repeats still spontaneously increased to dangerous levels in about one out of every hundred million births every year. Megan was one of those unlucky few.

"Really? You'd do that for me?" Megan asked excitedly.

"Yeah, we're besties now" Lily replied.

"Megan, we would take in every needy child if we could, but since we can't, we have to be somewhat selective. My wife and I've talked about this a lot since meeting you and we've decided that you'd be a good child to take in. You're smart, funny, kind, and determined to make something of yourself, even though you know you're going to get sick someday. You have a lot of heart and we admire that," Uncle Emmett said.

While they were talking, Robby started feeling more and more out of place, like he was eavesdropping on a private conversation. He was also jealous that Megan might be getting adopted and he was not, so I took his hand and squeezed it to let him know that it would be okay.

Megan squealed and hugged Uncle Emmett and Lily, before Uncle Emmett continued, "Now it'll take some time to get the placement approved and finalized, so you'll have to continue living at the group home for the rest of the year at least. But if you're agreeable, we can start the paperwork." Megan nodded, so Uncle Emmett turned his attention to Robby. "What about you? You haven't given me any indication of what you think. Do you not want to live here with us or is this too much too fast?"

'He hasn't realized you meant him too,' I telepathed to my uncle.

Robby was shocked into silence, so Uncle Emmett continued, "I did say we wanted two children, didn't I? That's why I told Masen to invite you over here today, so that you could meet our family. My wife will be home in a couple of hours and I'm sure you'll love her, because she's the nicest most loving mother I've ever seen in my life and I'm not just saying that because I'm married to her."

"If you say yes, we'll be neighbors and I can come over and play all of the time," I signed and my cell phone translated.

"Why would you want me?" Robby asked stunned.

"Well for all the same reasons we want Megan: you're kind, smart, hardworking, and determined to make something of yourself in your limited time. I've met every defective in that group home of yours and you two and by far the best," Uncle Emmett replied.

"Can I think about it for a while?" Robby asked still not quite grasping that there was a family that wanted to adopt him. He had hoped to be adopted someday when he was really little, but had given up on the idea long ago. No one had ever shown even the slightest bit of interest in him or any of the other defectives. He had noticed that only the young undamaged children ever get adopted.

"Sure can. Take all the time you need, but know that we can't start the adoption process until you give the go ahead. You can start coming over on weekends and holidays to get to know our family if that would help," Uncle Emmett replied. Robby nodded. "Alright, well I have to make dinner, so why don't you kids do your homework and then go outside to play?"

"You got it," I signed for both of us, because Robby was busy imagining what it would be like to live in this house and have a mom and dad and three sisters. He liked it.

Lily and Megan were already getting out their homework, so I pulled out mine. After a few minutes Robby refocused and pulled out his homework and while we worked, the humans snacked on the human food.

Violet was the first one done, because she had started first, so she came bounding down the stairs and announced, "I'm meeting Adriel at the Whitlock's place."

"Have fun, but don't get into any trouble," Uncle Emmett called after her as she left.

It took the rest of us another half an hour to finish, mostly because Lily and I were both going slowly so that Megan and Robby would not notice our super-human speed. When we finally finished, we went outside to play, going just far enough away that Uncle Emmett could not hear us. Normally I would already be at the Whitlocks' and Lily would meet us over that way, but we could not go now that we had the humans. Not only would Ashley be over there, but also the others would be running around faster than human eyes can follow, so we stayed at the Hale home and talked instead.

"What do you think about living here?" I signed.

"Do they really want more children?" Robby asked me.

"Yes, ever since A-N-G-I-E died, that's all Uncle Emmett can talk about."

"Who?" Robby asked, not recognizing the name. Not only was it a different nickname than Uncle Emmett had used, but my cell had spelled it out, just as it is spelled out in sign language, instead of translating it back into a name.

"Lily and Violet's sister. R-O and A-N-G-I-E were both her nicknames."

This time he connected the dots and remembered when I told him about Angie before. He thought that the death of Lily's sister was a sensitive issue to discuss with Lily present, so he decided to change the subject and he remembered a shiny object that had caught his eye back in the house. "That big metal T, what was that?"

"That's a cross," I answered

"A what?" he asked.

"A cross," Lily replied. She had overheard our conversation and decided to jump in. "My parents are Christian. They believe that some old fart died on a big ugly T."

"Christian?" Megan asked confused.

Christianity was not a very common religion. It had been back when our parents were human, but it lost favor during the first Sudanese war. The religion had started in Egypt when a rogue vampire named Aten forced Amun and his wife out of their temple. The Volturi had already destroyed most of the Egyptian coven, so at the time, Amun and his wife had the rule of the country to themselves. But with just two vampires, they could not hold their territory when Aten attacked, so they fled.

The Volturi got wind of the trouble in Egypt. They would have let Aten displace Amun, except that he was wreaking havoc on the humans and forcing them to build him lots of temples.

He was flaunting the secret, so their Guard killed him and his soldiers, letting Amun seize control of Egypt once more. But Aten had established a cult among the humans that did not die out with his demise and instead developed into three different major monotheistic religions, including Christianity. Jackson had seen it all and made a comic book about it and everything.

Aten's three religions were all very successful as far as religions go, primarily because of Aten's love of violence, but they had their roots in Egypt, which was part of the African continent, and therefore in Sudanese territory. And Israel, which was also important to those religions, was also on the African side of continental divide; the rest of the Middle East had gone with Europe and Asia, but not Israel. The Classic's religious base could not be in Sudanese territory, so they switched religions. All of them.

"Ah man!" Robby exclaimed. "I knew this was too good to be true."

"What is?" Megan asked.

"They're some weird archaic thing and they aren't gonna want us as soon as they find out we're not," he answered.

"Pasta!" Megan exclaimed.

"No, that's not true. They saw your religions on you fact sheets when they asked about adopting you," Lily replied.

"You don't understand, I'm _horrible_ at religion. I failed the test for the first _four_ religions I chose. If it weren't for Robotarianism being so easy, I would still be taking religious class every Sunday with the five year olds," Robby said clutching his Robotic Monk pendant that he always wore around his neck to protect him from Sunday school.

Robotarianism was a religion based off of a book called Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. In it, robotic monks were charge with believing nonsense so that humans would have more time for more rational, productive thoughts. It was meant as a criticism of religion and had been made into a religion as a joke by a bunch of Atheists. Only the original book had been lost, no one remembered the religion was a joke, and their religious text included robots, so it gained mass appeal around the time that New Ebola struck.

"Yeah, I failed it twice too," Megan revealed. "It was just so hard to remember and none of it made any sense. If it wasn't for the Flying Spaghetti Monster guiding me with his noodly appendages, I probably would have never remembered that witches eat calculators and pirates prevent global warming."

"Is that it?" Robby asked confused. "I could never get Pastafarianism; too many I rather you didn'ts. With Robotatianism, I just have to believe that this robot necklace is going to believe everything for me and that the sky is pink. There were seriously just those two questions on the test."

Robby and Megan were of course referring to the government mandated religious test they had to pass as wards of the state. Canada had freedom of religion, but not freedom from religion, so all of the orphan children had to pick a religion to study every Sunday and pass a test on it. Most kids passed the test by the time they were six, but Robby and Megan had both struggled with it. After a year, they were encouraged to try a different religion and take a different test, until they each found easier religions.

"It's okay guys. I don't really believe the nonsense my parents spout either. I just nod and keep my mouth closed whenever they say something religious," Lily said.

She and Violet had believed when they were little, but after Ro died, they could not lie to themselves anymore. There was no reconciling what their parents said about a higher human power with their sister's death. There was nothing in Allison's knowledge of the universe, Jackson's knowledge or the past, or the twins' knowledge of the future to suggest that there was a higher power. None of the Whitlocks believed and Eliza and I agreed with them, which left only Aiden and Adriel on the monotheism side of things and not even they could figure out what their parents were talking about. Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Emmett were uber religious though, so Lily and Violet had decided to keep acting like they believe, for their parents' sake.

"But what about when they start asking us questions and expecting us to know the answers?" Megan asked.

"Just say you don't know or don't remember or are confused. They know you were both raise with different religions and they're not gonna expect you to remember it," Lily reassured them.

"I don't know," Robby replied skeptically.

"It will work if you just say you forgot," I signed, hoping to reassure the humans. I did not want to go through the getting to know humans process all over again. And humans always forget everything, so it was a valid excuse.

"I don't think they expect you to know too much about our religion, because you weren't raised with it. It's not even a Sunday School option here," Lily said.

"Nope, not even an option," Megan confirmed.

"Never heard of it before," Robby added.

"So as long as you are willing to be silent and listen attentively when they blather on about religion, they'll be happy," Lily said.

"Okay," Robby replied.

"Alright," Megan replied.

"Hey Megan, do you want to go on a hike and see the river?" Lily asked, hoping to get off of this depressing topic. "It's really pretty"

"Sure," Megan answered.

Megan and Lily walked off towards the river very slowly, leaving me and Robby by ourselves.

"Where are all the other kids?" Robby asked.

"Everyone's at the Whitlock house. They have the most kids, so everyone congregates over there. They're playing baseball today."

"That sounds fun," he said hopefully.

"But there's no way we can go, because both Eliza and Ashley are over there. The home doesn't want you near Eliza, and Ashley will absolutely freak."

"Oh…if I get adopted, do you think she'll ever get used to me?"

"Yes, of course she would have to, but it will take her a long time. We might all be grown by the time that happens."

"So Megan and I would always be left to play by ourselves, while the rest of you play at the Whitlock's?"

"Sometimes, but not always. I would come and visit you and my uncle would make Lily and Violet stay and play here. Violet's dating Adriel, so he'd probably come here instead of going to the Whitlock's if you were here."

"I wouldn't want to break you all apart like that."

"Do you want to know a secret?" I asked and he nodded. We had gone far enough away from the house that Uncle Emmett could not hear, but Lily and Megan were not that far away. I did not want Lily to know, so I started walking us away from the house. "You have to promise not to tell anyone."

"I promise," he said as we continued to put distance between us and the house.

He meant it, so as soon as I was sure Lily would not be able to hear, I revealed, "The Whitlocks are only going to be here this one year. Next year they're moving further south to live with relatives they have in Texas." This was not the current plan, but Scryan could see it plain as day, so I knew it would happen one way or another. And if the Whitlocks were not even going to be around, then Robby did not need to worry about if Ashley would ever accept him.

"Really?" he asked surprised, so I nodded. "But they just got here!"

"You can't tell anyone."

"Okay, I won't tell. Where will you live once they're gone?"

"I'll have to move back in with my parents. Eliza hasn't been so bad lately, so maybe it will be okay."

"And I'll be able to play with the rest of you when they're gone?"

"Yes."

"I think I want your uncle to adopt me, but I want to meet your aunt before I make any decisions," he revealed.

"My aunt is really nice and she loves kids. They babysit me and Eliza a lot."

"I can't believe you never told me that they wanted to adopt! I've been waiting my whole life for someone to come along and want to adopt me!"

"Well they hadn't decided who or even when and I didn't want to get your hopes up, but I did tell them about how great you are when they asked."

"You told them I'm great?"

"Yes."

"Thank you so much!" he said slinging his arms around me in a hug. I could have backed away, but then he would have noticed how quickly I can move, so I decided to stay put and bear the smell. Besides, I was sort of use to his smell by now, so it really was not all that bad. It just made my mouth water and my throat burn.

It was already getting close to the time my aunt was due home, so I walked Robby back to the Hale house. I did not want to stay and eat human food with them, so I told Robby that I was leaving to give him some time to get to know his new family, before I took off to join the baseball game still raging on the field near the Whitlock house.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: What do you think of Emmett and Rosalie's hosts?<p> 


	48. Book3 Jasper ch18

Jasper's POV:

Mariam came by for our usual afternoon sewing session. She had just sat down and had not even pulled out her needles when we heard Kair and Kare calling to be pulled out of their wormhole. Mariam pulled out Kare first, then set her down and pulled out Kair. They looked to be about the size of six year olds, which meant that they were about the largest they have been so far.

"Hi Daddy, what did you make us this time?" Kare asked hugging me even before Kair was on the ground.

"I've got a set of lovely pale yellow dresses that might fit you," I replied hugging her back. "I've missed you two." And then Kair was in my arms too and I was hugging both of my girls.

"Can we change now?" Kair asked, looking up at me with those big beautiful gold eyes of hers. They were the same eyes I saw when looking at Alice and it made me miss my wife a little bit more every time I saw them.

"Sure sweetie, but then I want some answers from you," I said.

The girls nodded and we went into the room. I located the largest two dresses I had made. The dresses fit perfectly and my girls looked adorable in their identical dresses. The only problem was that without the clothing to distinguish them, I was having trouble telling them apart. I rectified the situation by giving Kair her silver necklace and Kare a white cowboy hat. Kair had left the necklace here last week when she visited and the hat was mine.

Once they were done, we all went back out to the living room with Mariam and I started in on my questions. "I've been thinking about finding you hosts so that I can go home. I want you two to answer some questions for me to help me chose appropriately. Now, first of all you said that the host choice is critical so that you don't get separated and trapped in time. I want to know if the hosts have a specific talent that prevents you from getting stuck in time," I said.

"Yes, both hosts are talented," Kare answered.

"Are they shields? Like Bella or Lily?" I asked, hoping that I was getting somewhere.

"One's a shield, the other isn't," Kair answered.

"What kind of a shield? A physical shield or a more specific shield?" I asked.

"More specific. He can only shield manipulations of the space-time continuum, like what Adriel and Hadriel do," Kare replied. I did not miss that she used the word he, meaning at least one of the hosts was a boy.

"Who's Hadriel?"

"Adriel's first born son. He's got a similar talent to his dad," Kair said.

"Does Adriel already have children in your time?" They seemed too young to me for Adriel to be old enough to reproduce.

"No, but we've been to the future too," Kare answered.

"Okay, back to the shield. Has he been born yet?"

"No," they both replied simultaneously.

"Is he a relative of the Jacksons?" I asked, thinking that I was finally getting somewhere.

"Yes."

"Monroe's future son?"

"No."

"Mariel's?"

"No."

"A more distant relation?"

"No."

"That only leaves Mariam," I replied wondering where I had lost them. Mariam was supposed to die after only having my mother. I never had any white uncles. I did not even know about any dead white uncles.

"Exactly," Kare replied.

"I have a son?" Mariam asked, coming into our conversation for the first time.

"Yes, but we can't tell you any more about him," Kair said.

"Okay, back to the other host then. If not a shield, then what? How do both of you keep from getting stuck in time?" I asked.

"We can't tell you that yet, because you're not ready to hear it," Kare said. But her emotions gave me the impression that it was more she did not want to say it in front of Mariam than that I was not ready to hear.

"We told you about the one host, because you guessed; you figured it out yourself, so you were ready. When you figure the other one out, we'll tell you too," Kair added.

"In that case the two of you are going to get it: we're going swimming," I replied picking up a girl in each arm. "Mariam, do you want to go with us or do you want to stay here and finish your sewing?"

"I'll stay here. I have a lot to sew," she replied, still reeling from the news that she has a son that will serve as host to one of her great granddaughters and travel to the future. It was a lot to take in and I thought some time alone might help with that. Plus, I wanted to separate the girls from her to try to get some answers regarding the second host.

And so the girls and I went back into my office and changed into our swimsuits that Mariel and Mariam had made for us; they were far better sewers than me, because they had had so much more practice. Then we grabbed towels and went out to the river to splash around in the water. It was a warm day and it was too sunny to be around humans, but there was enough tree cover that we were not blinded by the sparkles most of the time.

"Is it really me who's not ready to know, or is it Mariam?" I asked, taking a break from splashing with my girls.

"Nana Mariam," Kare answered. "Telling her about her son was enough for the day."

"And why is that? How is she connected to the second host?"

"It's her. She doesn't die, because you take her to the future to save her by giving her an egg," Kair replied.

"Mariam is the other host?" I asked flabbergasted. The girls nodded and then took off to play some more. Kair was chasing Kare in a game of tag.

While the girl's played, I thought. Would I really take my grandmother out of her own time to be my host? Could I really kill my own flesh and blood to feed my baby? How would Mariam's supposed inevitable untimely death change that answer? Was death really in her cards, or was that just a lie to explain why she disappeared? Would she live a normal, long, and healthy life if I just left her here instead?

And what about Grandpa Augie and Grandma Dina. How would their lives be affected by this? If Mariam never left, then would Grandpa ever love Grandma Dina? Would their children ever exist? Would Keisha, my best friend growing up, be born? And at the same time I asked myself these questions, I knew that they did not matter, because I cannot change the timeline. What happened happens and there is nothing I can do to change that; I should not even try.

I decided that I was not going to get caught up on the moral and ethical ramifications of using my grandmother as a host for one of my daughters. Thus I started thinking about how Mariam's power might prevent the girls from getting stuck in time. With the other host being a shield, it was obvious how that would work: the girls would accidently open up a wormhole, but the shield would block formation, or entry, or maybe even destabilize the thing and cause it to collapse in on itself.

But how would Mariam be able to stop the girls from getting lost in time? I thought about it for a long time while I watched my girls enjoying the water. Finally the answer came to me when I tried to imagine what Mariam might do once stuck inside a wormhole. Obviously, she would use her power to extricate herself and any egg she might be carrying. She would re-open the hole back to where she came from. If the girls had not moved in time, it would be very easy for Mariam to do so. But what if the egg she was carrying did travel in time? Could Mariam even move through time, or was she limited to space? I decided to ask.

"Girls, can Nana Mariam travel through time and space?" I asked.

"A little of each," Kair replied.

"She can travel further and more easily through space than we can, although it's not comparable to how easily we can travel through time," Kare added.

"She can travel through time, but that is comparable to how difficult it is for us to travel through space," Kair finished.

"So what happens when she gets trapped in time?" I asked.

" She's my host," Kare began. "And every time I accidentally opened up a hole, I didn't go far, because it was like she was slamming down the breaks and preventing me from straying too far. She was always able to bring me back before she ran out of oxygen, although there were a few close calls; being a host delays the suffocation process slightly."

"Oh," I replied absorbing this new information.

I had never thought about it like that, although it did make sense that Mariam would be able to curb spontaneous wormholes and bring both herself and my egg back to the present. But no matter how much sense it made and how big my brain was, I still needed time to wrap my head around this new information. Luckily vampires are good at multitasking, so part of my brain was digesting it, while the other part was playing in the river with my girls.

They stayed longer than usual this day, so when the sun set, I made them dry off and get out of the water. I took them hunting for coyotes in the nearby woods and while we ran, my questions from earlier kept repeating in my head. I knew that the answers would not affect my decision, because I would not change the timeline and risk my future, but I still had to know.

"Would Nana Mariam really die if we left her here alone?" I asked on the trail of a pack of coyotes. "If she wasn't made a host?"

"Yes, she was dying," Kair replied.

"That's why you took them: you love them and they were dying," Kare added.

"Do you know what they were dying of? Is it something I could prevent or is there a cure?" It would ease my conscience if there was not, but it would eat me up inside if there was a cure in the future and I still used them as hosts to serve my needs. If I transported Mariam to the present, she could be expected to live for about two hundred years due to the advances in medicine. She would not live nearly as long as a typical human, because typical humans had been genetically engineered for a longer lifespan and without the modification, two hundred years was all she could hope for. Still, two hundred years was twice as long as the hundred she would get with the parasitism.

"Some disease. It doesn't exist in our time, so you can't cure her," Kare stopped at an outcropping of rocks and answered. We were getting close to the den and we did not want our conversation to disturb the animals or warn them off, so we waited here to finish speaking.

"What about in another time? We don't have to take her all the way to the future, just to the time of the cure, when the disease was eradicated."

"There never was a cure. It was eradicated through vaccination," Kair replied.

"The humans quarantined the sick and let them die. They vaccinated the healthy so that they wouldn't get sick and die too," Kare replied.

"What was it? You have to know." I was practically begging for an excuse not to use my grandmother.

"We know, but we can't tell you," Kare answered.

"We also can't tell you when. If you know too much, you'll try to prevent the inevitable from happening. Besides, Nana Mariam and her son both said not to change anything about the past, because they're very happy with the way things turn out for them," Kair added.

"And how does it turn out?" I asked, assuming that my girls had gone into the past to see and talk with their own hosts.

"Nana Mariam finds true love. Her sole-mate isn't Augie, but her future husband. They have children together," Kair replied.

"We've played with them," Kare added.

"Does she find him right away, when I first bring her to the future?"

"No. She is a few years older, but she does have six children with the new guy," Kair answered.

"She's happy?" I asked. This was important.

"Very happy. She gets to finally meet her other four great grandchildren," Kare answered.

"There's nothing better than that," Kair replied.

"And she already knows us, so she wants to help bring us into the world," Kare said.

"She said so before," Kair added.

"That she did," I conceded.

"What about her son? How old is he when I take him? He doesn't know us; is he really okay with it all?" I asked.

"Relax Dad, he was sick too. He would've died, but thanks to me, he gets an extra hundred years at being human," Kare answered some of my questions.

"He was just a baby," Kair added.

"How does his life turn out?" I asked, obsessing over this issue. Choosing hosts was a major decision and I wanted to make sure I had it right.

"Great. He even learns how to throw his shield so he can travel through wormholes," Kair replied, not quite telling me what I wanted to know.

"But I thought that the two of you can only take each other?" I asked intrigued.

"Not ours," they replied and I assumed they meant Mariam's wormholes. Maybe the two hosts would travel together through wormholes during the parity.

"How does he survive without oxygen? How do both of them survive without oxygen during the trip to the future, for that matter?" This was very important.

"Oxygen tanks made for divers," Kare answered.

"They aren't invented yet. How do they get to the future?"

"You improvise," Kair answered.

"You created a large glass bottle that trapped air," Kare replied.

"How did that work?"

"It was very big, but had only a little opening that the human puts to their mouth and breathes. It's a quick fix," Kair replied.

"That gave you time, but mostly you just ran really fast through time with them," Kare added.

"Oh," I replied, thinking about how I would have to take up glass blowing. It will take me years to master it to the point where I trust my creation to keep my hosts alive through our journey to the future. "But what I meant earlier was does my uncle get married and have children? What about a job?"

"Of course. He has all of those things," Kare replied.

"He said he's very happy with his life and was more than happy to be my host, although he did say I was really heavy towards the end," Kair replied.

"Yeah, did you know that the egg shell alone weighs ten pounds? Allison told me so," Kare added.

"Will you tell me about him? What was his name?" I asked.

"If we tell you, you'll influence Nana Mariam to name him that," Kair answered.

"Well what can you tell me?"

"He has curly blond hair, just like us," Kare replied.

"He's funny and he reads us stories," Kair said.

"His babies are cute too," Kare said.

"We like to hold them when we visit him," Kair added.

"And he always tells us how grateful he is to us for saving him as a baby. He can't even imagine what life in the eighteen hundreds was like," Kare added.

"Yes, he's way too used to modern conveniences to go back," Kair said.

"Thank you girls for telling me this," I said, taking them into my arms for a hug. "But we should hurry up and finished hunting so that we can get back to Nana Mariam."

They nodded and we took off after the coyotes once more.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: So now we know who the hosts are and why Jasper has to wait! Please review!<p> 


	49. Book2 Masen ch18

Masen's POV:

Robby and Megan started coming over once a week after that. They came every Wednesday afternoon and since I was Robby's friend, that meant that I stopped going to speech therapy on Wednesdays. Instead I would go over to the Hale's house and hang out with Robby, Megan, and Lily. Sometimes Violet and Adriel would be there too, but only if Uncle Emmett made them stay; otherwise they would be playing at the Whitlock's with the rest of the kids.

Well that is how it went the first month, but then Uncle Jasper started bringing Ashley over to socialize. Since he was in para, he would be getting a pair of hosts of his own soon and he wanted to start getting her used to humans. And since he was at the Hale's house and my dad was at home enforcing Eliza's punishment, that meant that all of the kids had to come over to the Hale house too. The only problem was that no one could figure out what to play with the humans around. We could not do anything physical, or they would see that we were too fast and too strong. And so we did nothing.

We were all still standing around doing nothing in awkward silence when Kair and Kare materialized right in front of Megan and Robby. They were both thinking that the only solution to the problem of having the pair of humans around for the foreseeable future was to just get it over with and admit that we were not quite human. And since the adults would never agree to this plan, they were forcing the imminent to occur now, so they could get it over with already and go back to playing and having fun.

Kare and Kair were living with the Whitlocks fulltime now, which meant they were around on nights and weekends and not just during school hours, but that did not mean they were always with us. They would take off down a wormhole at their every whim, often with little warning when they were going or when they were coming back; not even Scryan or Aunt Alice could tell for certain. And so right after school, when they put their backpacks in their room, came back downstairs, and announced, "Bye Dad," in unison, it was not all that unusual.

The twins were gone before any of us could ask any questions. Uncle Jasper questioned them about their comings and goings the first couple of days that they lived with us, but once they established a pattern, he stopped asking. Every day when they got home from school they would go to some other time to let loose and have fun after a long day of blending in with the humans. Normally they would spend a couple of hours somewhen else and be back only a few minutes after they left. But when they left this afternoon, nobody was expecting that they would show up right in front of the Hale's house in full view of both of the humans.

"Ashley, just knock 'em out every time they get too emotional," Kair told her sister.

"If you don't do it, they'll never learn," Kare added, before any of us, including her father, could react to their sudden presence.

Ashley was the first to move. The humans were beginning to panic after witnessing Kare and Kair's stunt and it was painful for Ashley. Her sisters had never failed her or been wrong before and they had saved us all from the Volturi when they told us to drop that bomb, so without thinking, she did what they said and eliminated the source of her pain. A burst of calm, peace, and tranquility came forth from her body, hitting Megan and Robby dead on. They both fell to the ground and the rest of us felt dizzy and disoriented as the excess of emotions washed over us.

"Ashley, stop that this instant," Uncle Jasper ordered, trying to take charge of the situation before it got any more out of hand.

"No Dad, she can't," Kair announced.

"If she just lets them up, they'll know," Kare added.

"It's a little late for that after you two just popped in here," Uncle Emmett replied, not knowing what to do and upset that his future humans already knew too much and his eggs were not even disgorged yet.

"We had to," Kare said.

"The situation was getting a bit ridiculous," Kair added.

"You can't keep them in the dark forever," Kare said.

"Especially not with all of us kids around," Kair stated.

"Then we'd never get to play," Kare finished.

"This is about playing?" Uncle Emmett asked, getting mad.

"Girls, if you had a concern, you should've come to me and told me about it, especially when it's something like this that concerns us all," Uncle Jasper said calming the situation back down. Not that anyone other than Uncle Emmett had managed to shake Ashley's calm, but he laid it on thick nonetheless.

"But Dad, he wouldn't've listened," Kare complained, referring to Uncle Emmett. They were Emmett's future humans, so it was his decision what they should be told.

"Jasper, you can't let them get away with this," Uncle Emmett rebutted.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do: Emmett, you're going to take the humans inside your house and Ashley'll wake them up slowly. Zakaira and Zikare, you're gonna come with me and have a talk about this. As for the rest of you, I've texted Edward to come get you," Uncle Jasper announced while typing a message for my dad into his cell. He never called the twins by their full names and by the tenor of his thoughts, it sounded like they were in trouble, although he had not formulated in his mind any of the details of said trouble yet.

Not even Kair and Kare were willing to backtalk to Uncle Jasper, so we all stayed silent and waited for Uncle Emmett to carry the humans, one at a time, into his house. He laid Megan on the couch and Robby on the floor and Ashley followed, to keep control over their emotional state, but kept her distance.

"Lily, Masen, you're closest with those kids: you go hold their hands as Ashley lets them up," Uncle Jasper order, just as my dad arrived.

I went inside, but I kept watch over the events transpiring outside. I found my dad's thoughts and learned that he had sent Eliza to stay with my mom, while he ran right over here. My mom was at work at the blood manufacturing facility on the compound, which meant he had trusted my sister to run to the other side of the compound, find my mother, and stay there. Maybe she would, or maybe she would seize the parental supervision free moment and find something fun to do.

"Gather up the kids that aren't involved in this and take them to your house," Uncle Jasper told my dad.

My dad was still assessing the situation and thought there might be a problem with suspicion on the part of the humans, but he started gathering up everyone who was not in trouble anyway. Violet, Adriel, Aiden, Allison, Jackson, and Scryan were all about to leave with him when White Cloud, in camel form, ran through the clearing and into the opened front door, with a second set of Kair and Kares following him.

This Kair and Kare came from about twelve hours after the first set and they were thinking that they had to come and fix their mistake that they had made by revealing themselves to the humans and telling Ashley that it was okay to knock them out. They had already been lectured by their father about keeping the secret, even from hosts, and after having thought about what they had done, they now had the solution to fix the mess they made: White Cloud.

White Cloud was only a couple months old, but he was already the size of a three year old when he was in his human form, although right now he was most definitely in camel form, not human. And again Kare and Kair acted before we had a chance to react; they were in the house and telling White Cloud to, "Make the humans confused when they think about our powers," and "Make them want to play with us and not think about it."

Ashley was already letting up her emotional grip on the humans and Robby opened his eyes just in time to see White Cloud transform from a wiry beige colored camel to a naked three year old copper-skinned boy. A moment later White Cloud reached out and touched Robby's forehead, in the same way Nessie does, and instantly fogged up Robby's mind, making the human forget that he had just seen a camel turn into a human or a set of twins materialize out of thin air. In fact, Robby seemed to forget how to think anything at all for quite some time.

A moment later, White Cloud turned and did the same to Megan, before Uncle Emmett realized what was happening and yelled out for him to stop. He caught hold of the toddler, but it was already too late and both humans were in some sort of induced daze. My dad was the next to respond, abandoning the six adolescent vampires he was supposed to be leading away from the commotion, to run in after White Cloud. Dad was too late, so all he could do when he got here was retrieve his naked squirming grandchild from my uncle.

"Sorry Emmett; I didn't even hear him coming," Dad said, referring to the fact that White Cloud had not been broadcasting his thoughts as he arrived. He did not think much as a camel and he was only three. Kair and Kare, on the other hand, normally give themselves away, but apparently they had learned the art of stealth of mind and had not started thinking until they were already running into the house.

"What did he just do? Did he do what those girls told him too?" Uncle Emmett asked my dad. His thoughts were not all that coherent at the moment, but I could tell that he was wondering what, if anything, my nephew had done to the humans. It was not clear that Ashley had completely let up her hold already, which she had done shortly after White Cloud touched them, and so Uncle Emmett was fairly certain that Robby and Megan were just under Ashley's hold. He did not honestly believe that Kair and Kare had used the hybrid to alter the humans' memory.

No one quite knew what White Cloud's power was, because he was so young. It was clear that he had a mental ability that involved touch, but he had certainly never altered someone's memory like this before. Dad, Eliza, and I could read his mind when he used his power, but we could not tell much, other than the fact that he was receiving vague images from the subject of his touch. The mind of the person being touched, however, offered up a few more clues, like the fact that they were not aware of any telepathing, but seemed to pick up White Cloud's thoughts as their own.

So we all knew that White Cloud had some sort of mind-reading or telepathic ability, but what it was he did exactly, none of us knew; the psychics could not see him, after all. Although his abilities were not strong enough to convince his mother to give him treats, so no one was expecting that he would be able to do something like alter Megan and Robby's minds to not notice our peculiarities. Only Kair and Kare knew and from their thoughts, I gathered that they had only learned of this fact just now, as their selves from twelve hours before.

And since almost everyone on the compound was gathered in or around Uncle Emmett's house, my mom, sister, and Aunt Alice decided to join the party. It might make sense if Nessie had come, but no, it was Eliza who showed up with mom. In fact, Aunt Alice was thinking that it had been Eliza who had suddenly shown up at the blood plant and told her and Mom about the emergency occurring here, causing them to stop work and come at once. Aunt Alice, like Scryan, had not seen anything, because of the time traveling and then the presence of the hybrid.

I could not read Eliza's mind, but Aunt Alice was thinking that my sister had run into the second set of twins running with White Cloud when she was on her way to the blood manufacturing facility to stay with Mom.

And then Nessie ran in wondering what was going on. Apparently the twins had showed up in the woods where she and White Cloud were running. They offered to watch the baby for a few minutes while Nessie went after a deer and then they just took off with him. When Nessie came back, she followed their scent trail looking for her kid and was thinking about telling the girls not to take off like that again, but she had no idea what her son had just done.

This time Aunt Alice took charge. "Edward, you stay and help with the humans and figure out what just happened. Bella will take the innocent six back to your house along with Nessie and the baby. Zikare and Zakaira, this Zikare and Zakaira, will come with me and have a lecture on not interfering with the timeline. The first set, and Ashley, will stay with Jasper and have a lecture on keeping the secret." She sounded very authoritative, like Uncle Jasper had been rubbing off on her, but then her tender side came through when she added, "They're going to be okay Emmett; I saw it. I can see what happens just as soon as the hybrids leave."

All of the adults jumped into action and carried out Aunt Alice's new orders and in less than a minute, half of the vampires were gone, including all four twins. Both sets and Ashley left for the Whitlock house with their parents and it seemed they really were in for separate lectures. And so that left just seven of us: me, Lily, Robby, Megan, Uncle Emmett, my dad, and Eliza. I was somewhat miffed that Eliza got to stay and did not leave with my mom, but since she could read every thought anyone has ever had, she knew more about what was going on than everyone else, so she had been allowed to stay. In fact she was the center of attention for over an hour while she explained what was going on.

It took Megan and Robby an hour to open their eyes and another half hour to sit up, but it was not until three hours passed that they fully woke up. In between they seemed to be processing information, but not truly understanding it. Memory flashes of the strange events they had witness would pop into their heads, but then they would get dizzy and confused and lie down for several minutes until they forgot and recovered again.

"According to the second set of twins, they're very suggestive, so if we just tell them what type of events to forget from their recent past and overlook in the future, they'll do it. Then we won't have to worry about being discovered around them, even if Kare and Kair do something stupid and materialize in front of them again," Eliza informed us.

And so that is just what we did. Megan and Robby forgot what they saw that day and they never again seemed to notice any of our vampiric peculiarities; we probably could have drank a cup of blood in front of them without them so much as flinching, not that Uncle Emmett ever let us test that hypothesis. He got them back to the group home in time for curfew and he and Aunt Rosalie sped up the adoption process. They requested that the humans be temporally placed in their home until it could be formalized, because if the humans were living here, they would have less chance to report any unusual memory problems to the authorities.

Nessie started teaching White Cloud to control his powers. Well mostly she was trying to teach him not to alter anyone's mind, but he was a baby so accidents happened and short-term memories got erased. Not mine of course, because of my shield. Eliza and my mom were also safe, but Nessie, Dad, Jake, and Alex got the brunt of the mind alterations. My favorite was when Dad suddenly thought he was a chicken and started pecking the carpet; like I said before, people are suggestive in the post-memory wipe stage and Eliza can be fun and creative sometimes.

And thanks to her help and good behavior recently, chicken innocent notwithstanding, Eliza got let off of her punishment and was allowed to play at the Whitlock's after school again. I did not have to move home, yet, but my dad was already thinking that I should.

Kair and Kare were on a stricter leash from that day on, with Uncle Jasper keeping closer tabs on their comings and goings, which meant they now had to tell him every when they went and they were only allowed to go to times when he and Aunt Alice were present. He was not able to verify every when they told him, because they almost always said they were going to our future, but their own past; to somewhen when they were between the ages of their disgorgement and when they were ordered into the past for their own safety. Most of the time they told the truth, but once I caught them hiding exactly when they had been; I did not want to get them in trouble and Eliza told me to drop it, so I did not tell Uncle Jasper.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: So White Cloud's mind tampering is the reason Robbie and Megan never get suspicious. I think his power could come in very useful :)<p> 


	50. Book3 Jasper ch19

Jasper's POV:

Mariam's first son was born about a year after her marriage to Augustus. This surprised us all, because I always thought that my mother, a female child, was her first child. I had been hoping that she would be born right away, be followed by the boy who would be Kare's hosts, and then I would be able to go home. But not only was this first baby not my mother, but he was also not Kare's host.

Mariam named him Jedediah and he had blue eyes and just a little bit of brown hair coming in. He was born early and he died a few days after he was born. He was too little, got sick, and we just could not keep enough fluids in his tiny body to stave off the dehydration. I tried forcing water down his throat, but in the end, there was nothing I or the local doctor could do and my mother's oldest brother died, explaining why I never knew about him.

Mariam and Augustus were not quick to repeat the baby making process and judging by his level of sexual frustration, she was turning down his advances for quite some time after Jedediah's death. I knew they both wanted more children, but Mariam was not ready to go through that again and so time went on without any little Allen babies to show for the new marriage and life continued on as it was before.

Mariam continued to stop by my cabin on a regular basis and she continued to pull my girls out of wormholes. Mariel was still away in Arizona and our only communication was via the occasional letter. She and Wayne got pregnant even before Mariam and Augustus did and their first baby was born a happy and healthy little girl who she name Ariel, after the name she thought belonged to my Kair. Even Monroe and Bethany had another baby; another boy named Darrell.

Not even John Phillip's hatred for me changed and he continued to make his presence felt at some of the worst times. He was the only human outside of the Jackson and Allen families who ever bothered to stop by my little cabin and he was still accusing me of the most ridiculous things ever. Why just this afternoon he came over to tell me about a strange series of dead bodies found on the outskirts of town and accused me of keeping Augustus and Mariam apart. Now if he had accused me of being a murderer it would be another story, but I was not guilty in the least of keeping my grandparents apart. I wasn't guilty of this particular murder and John was only using it as an excuse to stop by, but murder was much more up my alley.

"Augie's one of my good friends, so I feel it's my business what's goin' on between you and Mariam," he said, not knowing what he was talking about, but saying it just the same. "Now it's one thin' to steal someone's girl away when they've just barely begun to date, but you can't go 'round takin' people's wives. It ain't right. I know that yall do that sort of thin' in Arizona, but just because it was done to you don't mean you can turn 'round and do the same to Augie."

"Let me get this straight: you're actually accusing me of trying to steal Mariam away from Augie? Why?" I asked exasperated.

"Because she spends all of her time here with you doin' Sam Houston knows what and she ain't sleepin' with Augie no more. She got to be sleepin' with someone and it's got to be you. You're the only bastard 'round these parts slick enough to try it."

I really wanted to drink him in that moment for saying such an outlandish thing and I almost did. The only thing that stopped me was that he might have told someone he was heading out to see me. Or someone might have seen him on the way out to my cabin. I did not want to be associated with his death and have to leave, so I kept my rage in check and replied, "I'm only going to say this one more time: I'm _not_ sexually interested in Mariam or Mariel. I think of them as my _sisters_ and my thoughts towards them have always been platonic in nature." I growled a few of the words through my clenched teeth, but I was trying not to.

"Why not? You're not related and they're very attractive young ladies. They're very easy to look at it you know what I'm sayin'. You do know what I'm sayin' right? Wait, are you one of those sissy boys who likes other boys?" he asked confused.

"No. They are not my type; they're too young, too tall, and their hair's too curly," I replied trying not to hurl at his objectifying of my grandmother.

"Talk about the pot callin' the kettle black: you're young, tall, and got curly hair too."

"Exactly, I don't want a woman who looks like me."

"You must be crazy to pass up a chance at Mariam just because she looks a bit like you. Why if Augie hadn't already married her and I wasn't married to my Melinda, I'd be chasin' her myself," he said letting off sexual vibes. He was clearly thinking about my grandmother in an inappropriate way.

"Please stop; you're making me ill," I replied, trying to lift the randy horniness and replace it with the calm desire to leave. But then I dared not hit him with a full blast, because I did not want him to know it was coming from me.

"Talkin' about a pretty woman is makin' you ill? Have you never had sex? Is that why your wife started seein' that other man? Because you weren't satisfyin' her? Is that why she made you leave?" he asked, not getting the hint. "If given the chance, I'd take Mariam to bed in a heartbeat." The emotions he was emitting were absolutely revolting. At first there was disbelief, distain, and repulsion while he was talking about me and my wife. And then there was desire, lust, and sexual tension, along with jealousy, distain, and anger, when speaking about my grandmother. The combination was unbearable.

And then I really did lose it. My stomach was in knots and I felt that queasy feeling that I had not experienced since Mariam, Mariel, and Monroe first pulled me out of that wormhole. Maybe there was something about being in para with twins that was making me more susceptible to it, because I vomited all over John's albino alligator skinned boots. I had drained a family of otters that morning, so my stomach had been full of otter blood, but now my stomach was empty and his boots were covered in blood.

"What in the world's goin' on Cullen!? These are my new boots. Is that blood? Is that your blood? How are you still standin' there if you're bleeding like that?" he asked and when I did not answer, he continued on. "How're you bleedin' like that? I've seen a man vomit blood, but that was after a good poundin' when he barely made it over to Doc's place. And at the time, he wasn't in no shape to just be standin' there like that."

I let John ramble on as I thought about what I should do. I would have to kill him, because he had seen too much, but had anyone seen him coming here? Did anyone know that he was headed out this way? I could not risk it. It would be better to let him go home, kill him there, and make it look like an accident.

"I told you not to talk about Mariam like that; that's what you get for disrespecting a woman. You're disgusting and I want you to leave now," I said firmly, not answering his questions.

"You can't just pretend that this is normal! I'll probably come back tomorrow and find you dead. Did someone at least punch you earlier or somethin'? How do you explain all of this blood?"

"Yes, Augie punched me this morning. He seemed to have the same ridiculous idea as yourself," I lied, trying to tell him what he wanted to hear so that he would drop it.

"Oh…Do you want me to give you a ride over to Doc's place on my horse?" he asked with the first hint of concern.

"No, I'll be fine. I just want to go inside and rest."

"Well I should at least come over to check on you later."

"No, Mariam's coming over soon to bring me dinner and she can check on me. You're not needed," I said and turned to go back into my house.

I closed the door firmly behind me and waited for him to leave. He was stubborn and strangely determined about something, but I wore down his emotions and replaced them with a sudden burning desire to go home. He left, but did not go straight home. I know, because I climbed out my rear window and followed him. He stopped at every homestead on the way to his house, which thankfully did not include the Allen or the Jackson residences, and mentioned to them some of the details of what had just happened.

"I was just over at Cullen's place and accused him of havin' relations with Mariam. He denied it at first, but he practically admitted it towards the end. He said Augie beat him up somethin' proper this mornin' for what he'd been doin' with her," he told Mr. Koch at the general store.

As the only clerk at the general store, Mr. Koch heard all of the town's gossip, so I was cringing when John stopped there and said that; now everyone in the entire town would think there was something going on between me and my grandmother. How was I going to face her and my grandfather after this? But I had a mission and John did not mention the blood to anyone and only made one more stop after the store, before he went home. I let him clean up his boots and change his clothes before I pounced.

I had not had human in a very long time and I could not pass up an opportunity like this one to do so, especially because I did not have any synthetic blood in my system. I did not even have animal blood in my system, thanks to my earlier accident, so I probably would not have been able to resist if I tried. As it was, I did not try to resist and greedily gulped down every last sweet delicious succulent drop. There was something about being in para that made indulging taste so much better, or maybe it was just that my stomach was empty and it had been so long since I tasted Classic. Either way, John was one of the tastiest humans I have ever had.

While the blood was going down, I was too caught up in the delicious taste to be affected too much by his desperate, horrified emotions. It was not until after he was empty and I wanted more, that the ramifications began to affect me. It was like a bitter aftertaste the way his anguish washed over me long after he was gone. Even the little bit of smugness from being proved correct regarding my weirdness was excruciating. It was worse because I was out of practice with drinking human and I wanted to curl up into a ball and die, but I knew I could not do that, as I had a murder to cover up and I had to get out of sight before anyone came by.

After a few moments, I regathered my composure and left his body the way he had described to me earlier when telling me about the other murders. He had told me these details to see my reaction, but he could not have known how I would use the information. He was found the same way as the bodies on the outskirts of town were found, with his clothes on, his throat cut, not a pool of blood anywhere, and propped up in a chair like nothing in the world was wrong. When I was done staging the scene, I stayed to watch, waiting for his body to be found.

It was already getting dark before I killed John and now it was so dark that no one could see that anything was out of the ordinary unless they were up close. His wife, Melinda, found him and thought at first that nothing was wrong and he was just napping in the chair on the porch, but when she went to wake him for supper, she had quite the shock. She screamed and then went out back until she found their one pair of slaves. They used to have more, but they had not been able to replace the ones that ran away. Now they just had one maid and one farmhand who were married.

Melinda sobbed into her maid's arms and sent the farmhand out front to see for himself what had happened. The male slave realized that his master was dead and went back to the women, before taking off to go get the sheriff. The sheriff did not come right away, despite being good friends with John, because he had been away at the other crime scenes in town. As it was, the shop keeper, Mr. Koch, came back to the estate with the slave at first.

At this point I decided to run by one of the other crime scenes and see for myself what was going on. They could have been human on human violence, but from what John had said earlier, they sounded more like vampire attacks to me. And as I ran towards one of the remote cabins, my suspicions were confirmed, because I picked up the scent of another vampire. By the time I made it to the property in question, I had picked up the scent of three vampires in total.

Judging by the mess they made of their victims, I would say that these were newborns. The victim here had a crushed leg, multiple broken bones, large gashes on his neck, and blood on the surrounding ground. This was not the blood pattern of a practiced vampire leaving some blood spatter to make the death look more realistic, but the high velocity spatter of ripping open the carotid and not having one's mouth correctly placed to capture it.

The scene was poorly staged, just as John had described. The victim was sitting in a chair on the porch with his eyes open, like he was watching the humans react to the carnage that was his body. There was no attempt made to leave animal tracks or broken tree limbs or make it look like an accident in any way. There was even a vampire footprint in the mud in front of the porch, although the sheriff had already done a good job at destroying it.

The sight made me glad that I had gone simple with John's death scene, because now the two would be clearly linked. I was with Mariam this morning when this man had been killed, so I had an alibi for it. The sheriff would falsely assume that both murders had the same murderer and since I could not have done this one, he would assume I had not done John's either, and I would be off the hook and in the clear. At least that is what I hoped would happen; I really wished I had Alice with me so that I could know for sure.

The sheriff was just finishing up being puzzled by this murder and botching the crime scene when one of John's friends road up and informed him of the similar scene over at the Phillip's homestead. And so the sheriff gathered up the three men who were there helping him, all of which had been part of John's posse that first day, and headed over to my crime scene. They went on horseback, but I ran ahead of them and made it back to my observation post before they arrived.

Melinda had cried herself to sleep out in the slave's quarters and her maid was still with her. Mr. Koch and the farmhand were still standing guard over the body on the porch and everything was just about where I had left it earlier. It was well into the night by the time the sheriff and his men arrived and they were equally puzzled by what they saw here as they had been at the last scene.

The men trampled the scene in search of clues, but they did not know what they were looking for. I was concerned for a moment that one of the men, whom I recognized as Paul, was onto an actual clue when he stopped to examine John's boots. I was fully prepared to insist that it was chicken or cow blood on those boots, if I was ever asked, but then instead of taking the evidence to the sheriff to look at, Paul snuck the boots out to his saddle bag on his horse.

Paul was extruding deceit and he clearly thought that he was being sneaky and that no one was watching, but I saw him steal the only real piece of evidence to be found here. The boots were valuable and even more so because they had been made from an albino alligator hide, as John had once again purchased his leather from me, because he wanted his boots to stand out. I had sold it to him to help pay for the lumber on my cabin. I had gotten quite a lot for it too, because albinos were rare.

The boots were worth so much money that Paul did not think twice about stealing them, especially because he shared the same size foot as John, but he was concerned about getting caught. He pulled out John's old pair of boots and went about making them look like they had been worn that day, hoping that no one would remember the white pair, but he failed to realize that the other pair were equally valuable, because of the unique pattern. He was too busy looking over his shoulder the entire time to notice and he did not even notice me. I was hidden in the brush and not even my tainted muddy brown eyes gave me away.

After a few hours of making sure that the humans were completely clueless, I went back to my cabin to pretend like nothing had happened. There were no new horse or human scent trails leading into my property, so I knew no one had come to visit me while I was out and that I would be in the clear to claim I was here the entire time. I did the work I was planning on doing before John had stopped by, to make it look like I had been there all yester evening.

And right on cue, Paul stopped by with the sunrise. He had been up all night helping the sheriff and now he was here to question me.

"Howdy Jasper," he greeted me. "Did you here John Phillips was murdered last night?"

"No. He was just here yesterday telling me about a couple of murders on the outskirts of town. Are you sure you got your facts straight?" I asked.

Paul went on to tell me about the crime scene, the murder, and just what the sheriff thought about it all, while I pretended to be shocked and dismayed. He even went into the facts of the other two crime scenes I had not been to, like that a family of four was found dead at one and another single male was found dead at the other. That was a total of six victims; seven if you count John, making it the largest string of murders this town had ever seen. And there was no obvious motive to link them, so the sheriff was still dumbfounded as to what happened.

Then Paul told me about the last known hours of John's life and how several people had confirmed that he had been out here to see me. He was to be questioning me for the sheriff to find out if I had any new information regarding what had happened. Of course I told Paul that I did not know anything and repeated the less incriminating moments from what had gone on when John visited me. And since half the town had already heard that John had come back saying I was having an affair with Mariam, I had to confirm that we had indeed discussed the topic. And I found myself once again wishing for Alice as I decided whether or not to cop to the pretend affair.

If I told the truth that I was not having an affair with Mariam, then it might look like I was in denial. If I was in denial, then I had something to hide. If I had something to hide, then I had a motive for murder and I could have killed him to shut him up. If I lied and said that we were having an affair, then my motive for murder vanishes, but I will be left with having the entire town think that we were actually having an affair, which would lead to long lasting consequences for both me and Mariam.

I was keeping my grandpa Augie in complete darkness regarding what was really going on, because I knew that he would live and know me as a child and I did not want him to have to keep my secret for a lifetime. But now I was faced with the choice of telling him that I am a vampire, killed John, and admitted to a fake affair with my grandmother to cover up the murder, or letting him think that I actually had an affair with Mariam. Either way, I was screwed.

If my grandfather thought that I was having an affair with his wife, then he would probably never let me see her, and by extension, my twins. I could not pull them out of a wormhole myself and Mariel was too far away in Arizona to help me. But if I did not get my alibi straight, then the humans might realize that I had committed the murder and I would have to leave town. And I could not leave town, because this is where one of my hosts was and the other would be born.

In the end I decided it was better to stay without contact with Mariam than to flee, so I admitted to the affair. Paul took another hour of talking to, but he eventually left to confirm that I was not involved in the murder and was only sleeping with a married woman. And of course that meant Augustus showed up on my doorstep with Mariam in hand that afternoon and wanted to know what was going on.

I could not tell Augustus the truth, but at the last minute I thought of another lie. I took my inspiration from something John had once said to me.

"Augie and Mary, I'm so sorry that I lied to John and Paul about the affair. But John was getting suspicious and I thought he was on to me; he even asked me if I liked boys. He thought that I was either having an affair or that I liked boys and since the answer is really the latter, I confirmed the former. Augie, believe me when I tell you I've never had a sexual thought towards your wife. Not ever."

Mariam knew enough about me to figure out what was really going on and that I had killed John. She was also on my side and did not care for the human, so she went along with my lie and told her husband that she had seen me kiss other men. She even said that I have had male guests over from out of town and that they were my boyfriends. She was surprisingly good at lying and I later learned that Kair and Kare had been to visit her and coached her on what to say.

And so I weaved a complicated web of lies and the humans bought it all. Now all I have to do is take care of those vampires in my territory, because I need these murders to stop and go away.


	51. Book2 Masen ch19

Masen's POV:

Robby and Megan got approved to move in with Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rosalie about a month later. By Spring Break, it was like they were part of the family. The other kids at school even started asking them about us, because they seemed more approachable than the rest of us. In fact, it seemed that all they were doing today was answering questions about the mysterious Cullen Clan. The questions were particularly bad in history, thanks to our class project.

Scryan, Robby, and I were assigned to the same group along with another boy named Ethan. It was a really easy project, because all we had to do was make a poster about the corporation take-over of the school system in Canada, which was what we have been learning about all year. I could have done the whole thing in five minutes if I did not have the humans around. Working with the group was the hard part about this project.

Scryan, Robby, Ethan, and I all sat on the left side of the room, so we pushed our desks aside and made a spot to work on the floor. Robby and Ethan got the supplies we would need from the front of the room, while I moved Scryan from his position sitting at his desk, over to our work area. He stood up when I pulled his hand up and walked over, with me guiding him around the desks easily enough, but the hard part was getting him to sit on the floor like the rest of the kids. He has sat on the floor before, but not at school, so he was not expecting it; he was expecting to sit back down in a chair and so the first time I pulled down on his hand for him to sit, he attempted to sit in an imaginary chair. I pulled his hand back up right away and made him stand right back up, before any of the humans noticed that he had just sat in mid-air, balanced only on his feet. I probably would have fallen if it had been me trying to sit in a non-existent chair on autopilot with no sensory feedback, but all of the Whitlock kids were super agile like that.

The second time I tried to sit Scryan down, he would not go. I pushed and pulled on his hand, just like I always do, but he would not budge. He would put his hand out to feel for the desk, having realized while trapped in the future that he had missed, and so now he was attempting to feel for a desk every time I indicated for him to sit. I tried telepathing to him and telling him to sit on the ground, but he was responding very slowly to input from the real-world. Eventually I decided to do it the way Jackson does and jump up to tap down on his shoulder; I was a couple inches shorter than Jackson, so it was a higher jump for me, but I managed to do it quickly enough that the humans did not notice. This time my telepathed message about sitting cross-legged on the floor had made it through to his brain and he sat, thank Darwin.

"Is he out for the entire class then?" Robby asked, returning with our blank poster board and noticing my struggles with my cousin. He did not think anything was odd about the fact that Scryan was off in la-la land again, because of White Cloud's tampering with his brain and the seizure excuse we had already given him. He was, however, thinking that we would have to do the project without Scryan's help, which was not fair, because we were all supposed to be working on it as a group.

Scryan always spent the day in visions now, because he was so over school that he did not care if he got caught. He had gotten caught a lot lately; so much so that they stopped letting me go home with him when it happened. It was not even a major classroom interruption anymore, because the teacher would just have me walk him to the nurse's office and come back. The other kids were so used to it that they no longer cared or stared. His mom would pick him up from the office and he would get to spend the rest of the day at home with his dad. His parents were beginning to get suspicious that he might be inducing the visions, but with all the stuff his siblings have pulled this year, Scryan's stunts were the least of their worries.

Kair and Kare were still living with the Whitlocks and they have been trouble ever since they moved in. Not only did they start, and end, that whole thing with Robby, Megan, and White Cloud, but they also sneak off to other time periods all of the time. Uncle Jasper had forbidden them from going anywhen without his permission, but they would be gone and back before he even noticed. They would ditch school every couple of hours, just to hang out in their wormholes and talk to each other, and then come back the moment after they left, just because they thought the school day was too long and without sufficient breaks. They even left during class once, because one of them got frustrated and wanted some time to calm down and regroup. And that is not even counting all of the times they take off at home without anyone noticing and do not get caught. Uncle Jasper and Aunt Alice knew that they were doing it and were trying to watch them closely and punish them accordingly, but with six kids in the house, those twins got away with it ninety percent of the time. And then there were all the other pairs of twins of different ages that would show up just to say hi or play in the sand box; Robby and Megan dutifully thought it was normal for younger versions of them to be running around the place. At least they had not pulled anymore stunts like the White Cloud thing.

Then there were the other children to deal with. Ashley, who was always emotionally demanding, was still a prankster. Allison's experimental fusion powered rocket-cars kept exploding. Jackson kept getting sent home for visions of his own, because he too had grown tired with school and preferred to escape into the past. And Uncle Jasper was still in para with twins, so with all that going on, a few calls a month about Scryan seizing in class barely even registered. They did not even notice that he was spending his entire day in his visions and not getting caught, thanks to me.

'Yep,' I telepathed to Robby and nodded my head, in case anyone else was looking. Robby heard me, but he never realized that I was telepathing my words directly into his brain. The first time I did it we all told him that he must be understanding me, without my translator, because he had picked up sign language after all of these months of knowing me. And the fact that he was hearing the words in my voice, well that was just a figment of his imagination brought on by having heard me say a few words out loud when visiting me at my house. He never questioned it, again, thanks to White Cloud and his wonderful gift.

"Well, then the three of us better get to work," Robby replied just as Ethan returned with the box of markers, scissors, and glue.

"What do you mean the three of us? Isn't he gonna help too?" Ethan asked, setting down our supplies and pointing at Scryan.

'He already did: he helped me write out the blocks of text we need,' I telepathed to Robby and signed at no one in particular. I have been relying on him to translate for me in this class for the past month; ever since I started telepathing to him. I could turn my cell phone on and have it translate for me, for Ethan's benefit, but I did not want to. The other kids had started making fun of the computer simulated voice every time they heard it, which just made me even more of an outcast than I already was for being mute and the rest of our family was not exactly fitting in here either. But when I stuck to signing, they barely even noticed my existence.

Scryan had in fact not helped at all, but he did tell me yesterday what our project was going to be and who we were going to be grouped with. And since I was at home all night with just my parents, two sisters, two nephews, and one brother-in-law, I had nothing better to do than spend half an hour doing our assignment on my laptop, snuggled in against my mom's side, while letting her run her hands through my hair. She was going to make me lie there while she did it either way, so I figured that I might as well get the school work over with and just do it, so our group would not be expected to meet outside of school.

Ever since Eliza has been off grounding, there has been no real benefit for me to live at the Whitlock's. She was allowed over there after school and thanks to my speech therapy in the afternoons, she normally got there first. And she got to go on their weekend trips with them every weekend, while I had to go home and spend that time with my parents, because they missed me. It added up to a choice between spending twelve hours four days a week at the Whitlock's and sixty hours straight with my parents over the weekend, or sixty hours over the weekend and a few hours every weeknight with the Whitlock's and living with my parents. I choose moving back home. It meant calling a truce with Eliza and both of us agreeing to cohabitate peacefully with as little interacting as possible, but it was the only way Aunt Alice would let us both go with them every weekend. With her grounding over, my free-ride in Whitlock-land was over too.

"Alright!" Robby exclaimed excitedly before turning to Ethan. "Masen and Scr…ah Brandon already finished all of the writing at home. We just gotta get it printed and paste it on here and we're done." He almost called Scryan by his real name, which he does at home, but he caught himself and turned it into Brandon. He made little slips like that a lot, but with his being human, there was nothing much we could do about it.

I left Scryan sitting on the floor and took my cell over to the classroom printer to send the data over. I had to input my school id number to get the old printer going, but we were the first ones at the printing stage, so there was no line.

"Finished writing already Masen?" Mrs. Breadstick asked me.

'Robby, come translate for me,' I called, turning towards Robby as I did it, to see if I could catch his eye. Of course having my message in his mind helped, so he looked up and then ran right over. Ethan followed just to see what was happening. 'Tell her that you, me, and Scryan have been working on it together at home and we emailed back and forth with Ethan to include him.'

"Masen said that we finished already at home. Now that I live over there it was no problem to get together with Brandon and do it. We even emailed it back and forth with Ethan a few times," Robby lied.

"I just gave the assignment today. How did you all know what it was?" Mrs. Breadstick asked. She had meant for us to brainstorm ideas today and tomorrow and do most of the work over the weekend. She was giving us a week to do it and did not think any of us could possibly finish on the first day. But Scryan and I had no plans on spending the weekend with humans instead of on one of their family's trips and the easiest way to avoid working over the weekend was to have it done by Friday. It was only Thursday, so I could have put it off another day, but I had free time last night and plans tonight, because my parents were taking Eliza and me hunting. It was easier this way, because the project would be done and I would not have to worry about it.

"Brandon saw it in one of those seizures of his," Robby answered.

He should not have said that, even though it was kind of true, so while he was talking, I hissed in his brain, 'You shouldn't tell the teacher things like that. Tell her it was on our syllabus and my parents made us get a head start over the weekend.' I signed the last bit with my hands too, to show the humans I had said something.

"Oh and it was in our syllabus too. Masen's parents noticed and made us get a head start. And Ethan's like one of my best friends, so I called him up and asked if he wanted to help," Robby modified. Best friends was an exaggeration, but it sounded good.

"And the seizure? How does that fit in?" Mrs. Breadstick asked.

"Brandon sees things in his seizures and then gets obsessed about doing them. He saw the four of us working on this project, so he insisted we get started," Robby lied. He was getting better at that.

"And what is Brandon doing now?" Mrs. Breadstick asked looking over to where Scryan was zoned out on the floor.

'Meditating,' I telepathed and signed.

"He's meditating and waiting for us to come back with the pages we've worked all week on," Robby answered.

"Okay, get back to work boys. That's so nice that I have students that are so eager to learn," Mrs. Breadstick said, dismissing us.

We went back to our side of the room and I handed some of the papers to Robby and a few to Ethan, but I kept most of them and started cutting and pasting. Robby and Ethan started cutting and pasting too, but they were doing it very slowly and they started talking while they did it, which made them go even slower.

"Thanks for saying I helped," Ethan began.

"Welcome. She wouldn't've let us use all of Masen and Brandon's work if she knew we had nothing to do with it," Robby replied.

'You should read it, in case she asks or puts any of it on a test,' I told Robby, but my hands were busy, so I did not sign it.

"Yeah, we should read it before we turn it in," Robby replied.

"What?" Ethan asked confused.

"Masen said that we should read what he and Brandon wrote, in case Mrs. Breadstick questions us," Robby explained.

"No he didn't; his hands are full of paper and scissors. I didn't see him do any signs," Ethan replied.

"Well you must've missed it, because I did," Robby insisted. Good for him.

"Whatever," Ethan said dismissively. "Hey, what's it like living with them? Are they even weirder at home?"

"No, the Hales are really nice. Every morning my mom and dad hug me and kiss me and tell me they love me and are real happy to have me as part of their family," Robby replied. He started calling Aunt Rosalie his mom the day he moved in with them and he started calling Uncle Emmett his dad soon after. He had never had parents before, so he was a little over eager.

Robby left out the part about them smelling him while they were kissing his hair and that they were marking him with their scent, by cupping his cheeks in their hands, when they told him they love him, but then he did not realize they were doing it. He had not been implanted yet, but they wanted him and Megan to get used to being smelled and marked while they were still young. After Uncle Emmett freaked out about not being able to smell Violet's host, they were a little overly cautious.

With all of the vampires running around the area now that it was our capitol, our humans needed to be marked, so that everyone knows that they are off limits and not available to drink or implant. Plus, it helps with identification. The last time Robby and I went to the mall, he got separated from me, because I was looking at this cool hand-painted guitar and Robby wandered off to look at video games. And instead of luring him out to the parking lot to drink, Vladimir brought him back to us, because he had smelled us on him. He found someone else to drink and Robby was safe.

"They don't look normal and you look like 'em now with all your expensive clothes," Ethan retorted. He was jealous of all of Robby's new stuff.

"These are just the clothes they buy me," Robby insisted. "They had to buy me new ones, because I grew out of all my old ones from the home." And Aunt Rosalie shrunk them in the dryer, so that she would have an excuse to burn them. She had to, because Aunt Alice kept having murderous thoughts about stabbing the offensive pieces of cotton with various sharp objects; it was a safety hazard.

"They could've bought you normal clothes at Target like everyone else," Ethan argued, having never met either of my aunts.

"These are normal clothes and my new parents are normal too. Well they're filthy rich, but they're still normal," Robby said. He liked his name brand clothes and did not realize they were nicer than everyone else's. They were nicer than the ones the home provided, but everything is nicer than what the home provides.

"What's your house like then?" Ethan asked.

"Awesome. All four of us kids have our own giant rooms and my mom decorates the place with super expensive crystal and vases and model cars and stuff. And the rugs are imported antique Persian rugs or something, so I'm always worried about breaking things or spilling things. But they're really nice and don't seem to care when we do break things," Robby said. Of course no one minds when he breaks things, because Aunt Rosalie just buys new ones. It is typical host territory and if you did not want it broke you should not have left it where the human could get it.

"Okay, but Brandon here's weird. I bet his house is really weird," Ethan insisted, tilting his head in Scryan's direction and pointing at him.

"Brandon's house is really fun!" Robby exclaimed. "Like addictively fun: all the kids want to spend all of their time over there."

"What's so great about it?" Ethan asked suspiciously.

"Well they're always doing something. I don't get to hang out there much, but all I ever hear about are all the cool things that happened there while I wasn't there," Robby answered.

"Like what?" Ethan asked.

"Okay, so Jackson is like super athletic and he's always starting baseball games, or basketball games, or football games, or races. They even have a Quidditch set! And then Allison is super good at engineering robots and bombs and stuff and is always making these small super-fast racers and exploding stuff. Didn't she help you explode the toilet at your house?" Robby asked me.

I nodded, mimed a big explosion, and telepathed, 'She helped me and Scry build them to get back at Eliza for hitting me in math class that one time.'

"Oh and Scr-B-Brandon and Masen helped make them, but his parents made Eliza clean it up!" Robby exclaimed laughing. Ethan laughed too.

While we laughed, Robby started thinking about the first explosion he had witnessed on our compound, the day he had officially moved in with us. We threw a giant party to celebrate and Uncle Jasper let Allison and Jackson have fireworks. Only they had a lot of fireworks and accidentally-on-purpose lit them all off at once to make a giant explosive lightshow. It was awesome, the human police came to investigate, and Allison and Jackson got told not to do it again. Robby did not know all that; he just thought it was an accident.

'Don't mention that," I telepathed. Our parents thought it was bad enough that we exploded things around the humans and it would only make it worse if they blabbed to the other humans about it.

"Oh okay," Robby agreed.

"Okay what?" Ethan asked.

"Masen said not to tell anyone about the toilet thing, or he'll get in trouble," Robby replied. He sort of thought that too.

"No he didn't," Ethan insisted again.

"Dude, not this again. He really isn't that hard to understand," Robby retorted.

"Well I'm not seeing his hands move every time you say he said something," Ethan rebutted.

"Seriously, he's communicating none verbally. After knowing him for six months, I began to pick it up," Robby said shrugging.

"Okay, then how did you know he was saying that?" Ethan asked.

"The way he nodded his chin," Robby answered. "He does that when something's a secret and we're not supposed to tell the adults or we'll get in trouble."

"He nodded his chin?" Ethan asked skeptically.

"Yeah. Sometimes it's the way he shrugs his shoulders or the look on his face." Again, Robby legitimately thought that this was how he was figuring out what I was saying.

"Whatever, but I heard Brandon has a twin who's even weirder than him," Ethan said, changing the subject.

"Who Ashley?" Robby asked confused.

Ethan nodded and answered, "Yeah, that's why she doesn't have to go to school with the rest of us."

"Yeah they don't make her go to school, but she's not weird. She's the funnest one of all of 'em. Everyone wants to hang out wherever she is," Robby answered.

He had been wary of Ashley for a little while after the incident with White Cloud, but then Ashley planted a few suggestions and tampered with his emotional state and now he has a crush on her. She did not intend to have a human following her around like a lost puppy, but she was having trouble getting rid of him without dampening his mood. To her, the idea of having a broken hearted teenaged boy around was even worse and Robby was not that bad to have crushing on you, as far as humans go.

Robby was a bit slow to sexually mature compared to the other humans around here, so his sexually fantasies amounted to kissing and that was it. When he was attracted to someone, he would stare at their lips when they talked, like he was doing now to Ethan, but that was as far as it went with him, which was one of the reasons I liked him so much. If we had to have a human around, I was glad it was one with blander thoughts like Robby. I will not even go into what the other boys his age think, because that is just gross.

"What's she look like?" Ethan asked.

"She's super pretty. She looks like the twins, only prettier, but with hair like Jackson. She has this long straight gorgeous jet black hair; you just have to see it," Robby replied, clearly delusional. And he made the mistake of referring to Kair and Kare as the twins, like we do at home, but half of us are supposed to be twins at school, so we were not supposed to call them that.

"Sounds like you've got a crush. You gonna ask her out?" Ethan asked.

"No, she's dating Aiden," Robby replied dejectedly. 'He's so tall that I could never compete with him.' Robby was taller than me, but way shorter than Scryan and Aiden; all of the kids were.

"What about Megan? She's single right?" Ethan asked. There were rumors going around that Robby and Megan were together and he wanted to verify that they were not true. They absolutely were not the least bit true.

"Yeah," Robby replied, not following him. Megan was single, but every guy in the school has had their eye on her since she got adopted by the Hales. It was only the fact that they were all intimidated by our family that kept them away so far.

"Well she's pretty and you _live_ with her. Do you ever sneak into her room at night?" Ethan asked. He wanted to sneak into a certain someone's room at night.

"No! Ew, she's gonna be my sister now," Robby replied, finally understanding what Ethan was getting at and feeling slightly grossed out that he would suggest it. Then he started thinking about sneaking into Ethan's room to kiss him, but he also thought that his new parents would never let him get away with sneaking into someone's room. My aunt and uncle were loving and generous with him, but they were strict disciplinarians when he broke the rules.

If I was trying to make a love match between the too, I would tell Robby that Ethan returns his crush and is asking all of these questions just to see if he has a chance. There are really only two trains of thought ever going on in Ethan's head, one of them being a perverted sex fantasy staring him and Robby. The other thought being hope that Robby returns his feelings and will just give him a sign already that he likes boys too. So I probably could play match maker and make Ethan very happy, but I was not going to.

The last thing I wanted was to have Ethan around more often. He was nosey, annoying, and perverted. Besides, Robby was still at the thinking about kissing stage and was definitely not ready for a relationship. And he was still quite confused about this relationship thing, because he seemed to have crushes on both Ashley and Ethan at the same time. From what my parents said about Stefan and his mate, I think you are supposed to pick just one sex to like. Robby probably only legitimately likes boys or girls, but is having trouble figuring it out, thanks to his brain practically turning to mush after the thing with White Cloud.

Robby has been very malleable and unable to make a decision since getting his mind tampered with. He was still very suggestive and I solved this problem by suggesting the choice I wanted him to pick. I just was not about to give him any suggestions that would put me in the uncomfortable situation of having to watch a new romance bloom. Besides, Robby was probably just responding to the vibes he was picking up from Ethan and being suggestive again. This was probably just another suggestive crush, like the one he had on Ashley. And since I did not want the human around, I kept my mouth shut and did not reveal the mutual attraction to either party involved.

"But she's _really_ pretty, don't you like her?" Ethan asked. 'Just say no. Say she's not your type. Please?'

"Yeah she's pretty, but she's family," Robby replied.

"But don't all the kids in that family date each other?" Ethan asked.

"There're four separate families. They all date someone in a different family," Robby insisted.

"Okay then, you could date Allison. Steal her from Masen," Ethan said, thinking that I was such a weird dork that anyone could take my girlfriend from me. He was also jealous of me, because Robby spent all of his time with me and he wanted Robby to spend all of his time with him. He did not think it was fair that I had Allison and Robby. Plus he was still hoping that Robby would say that he likes boys.

'Do and I'll drink you dry,' I telepathed to Robby, giving him the death stare when he turned to look at me. I was serious.

"I would never do that," Robby replied to both of us. He was very scared for a moment, but then he shivered, brushed off his fear, and promptly forgot that I had just threatened his life. He did, however, make an unconscious association between making a move on Allison and his sudden, untimely demise.

"Whatever, I still think they're weird," Ethan replied, getting frustrated that Robby had not given him any indication of his feelings. Obviously Ethan could not read body language and had not noticed Robby drooling every time he looks at Ethan's lips. They did look plump and red and deliciously engorged with blood.

"They're not," Robby insisted.

"Fine, if they're not weird, tell me about all the secret things they do on that compound of theirs," Ethan requested. His thoughts were in the gutter again and I almost gagged just hearing them.

"The compound's not that secret," Robby replied.

"Uh-huh, yeah right. My dad works at the post office and he said that they don't deliver mail out to the Cullen place, because you guys insist on picking it up yourselves," Ethan argued.

"Okay, so they don't like postmen; Mom says they trample the flowers," Robby insisted, repeating a lie he had been told earlier. He had not asked about the postman, but he had wondered why they did not have their furniture delivered when he and Megan got their new bedroom sets. Aunt Rosalie had left Uncle Emmett holding a dresser to tell Robby that delivery men might trample the flowers.

"Well then what do you guys do when you get home from school?" Ethan asked.

"Yesterday I went to the Whitlock's when I got out of school, like I do every day," Robby answered.

"And what'd you do there?" Ethan persisted.

"Brandon's dad had a plate full of snacks ready for us and they told stories. It's not that big a deal, really," Robby answered. Uncle Jasper was getting better at cooking, but he mostly just cut up some fruit and put together some sandwiches. It was really weird to watch, but he said feeding your hosts was a very important skill to master.

"What kind of stories?" Ethan wondered, actually forgetting about his horny teenaged boy fantasy for once.

"Well Jackson's probably gonna be a comic book writer when he grows up or something, because he makes up all of these stories about ancient warriors and sketches the books to go along with 'em; he's got a whole series of 'em," Robby answered, not realizing that he was leaving out the part about the stories all being vampire stories and true. "And Brandon's dad tells us stories about when he was growing up. Like last night, he was telling us how annoying Masen's dad was and that to get revenge on him, he would tell Masen's mom's parents that his dad snuck in her window at night to make-out."

"Masen, did your dad really do that?" Ethan asked, turning to look at me. He was spending so much time talking that he did not even notice when I finished my stack of papers and started on his and Robby's papers.

I nodded and the boys continued their conversation, while I continued to work on our project at a rapid human pace.

"Okay, so what'd you do after that?" Ethan asked.

"Then Masen texted me that he was home from speech therapy, so I went over to his house," Robby answered, shrugging his shoulders like it was no big deal.

We all took turns entertaining the humans, while the other kids played. Robby and Megan probably would not notice anything out of the ordinary if they saw us playing, but it was dangerous for us to play together and our parents did not want us flaunting our abilities in front of them; it was one thing if the humans did not notice the little differences, but we were not supposed to shove it in their faces. So every day, Robby and Megan would go to the Whitlock house after school and do a non-contact activity, like painting, storytelling, or digging for fossils in the shale out back. Three times a week Eliza and I had to watch the humans at our house and we would do homework and stuff. Once a week Aiden and Adriel watched them at their house and Friday nights and all weekend it was Lily and Violet's responsibility to watch them.

"What'd you do over there?" Ethan questioned, jealous of me again.

"So when I got there, there was really loud music blaring from the house. It was ancient rock or something and it stopped when I knocked on the door," Robby said, drawing out the suspense.

"And?" Ethan asked.

"And Masen opened the door with his base guitar strapped around his neck; turns out the music was from their band. Eliza plays the guitar and their dad was on the drums and Alex sings," Robby replied.

"Who's Alex?" Ethan wondered.

"Masen's older cousin," Robby answered, retelling the lie we had told him. "He's living with them right now."

"Does he go to the high school?" Ethan persisted.

"No, I don't think so…" Robby trailed off, never having thought before about Alex or what he was doing living with our family. He also had never questioned what Nessie, Jake, and White Cloud were doing there either or why White Cloud grew so fast. And he certainly never thought that Alex was Nessie and Jake's son; he was much too old and they were much too young. They were all our cousins and that was it.

'He's eighteen; he graduated last year,' I telepathed and signed at the same time when both boys turned to me again.

"He said Alex already graduated last year," Robby translated.

"So did their band play all night?" Ethan asked, thinking it was a little strange that we had a band going, but also that it was kind of cool. Then the fantasies started again and he thought it would be really hot if Robby played the guitar.

"No, his dad made us do homework, but Megan and I got to listen to them for like an hour before that," Robby replied.

"Okay, so here's the big question: we all know that Eliza and Masen hate each other; what're they like at home? I bet they scratch each other's eyes out and stuff," Ethan said. At this point he was pretty well satisfied that there was nothing sexual going on between me and Robby, which gave him renewed hope that there was room for him.

"They don't ever talk to each other," Robby answered.

"Ever? What about when they're playing in that band together?" Ethan wondered.

"Not even then. They talk through their dad mostly, so it's always, 'Dad, tell Masen to play a B flat,' or 'Dad, tell Eliza that we're playing the other song," Robby repeated some of the things Eliza and I had said to each other last night.

"What about when their dad's not there?" Ethan asked.

"Well then they talk through whoever else is there," Robby supplied.

"And what about when no one's there? What do they do then?" Ethan persisted.

Robby turned to me to answer, so I telepathed, 'Then we don't communicate,' and signed the same.

"He says then they don't talk," Robby translated.

"They must have to talk sometimes," Ethan stated.

"Didn't you learn anything in speech therapy to tell Eliza?" Robby asked me.

I nodded and very slowly and deliberately said out loud, "Leave me alone. I hate you." I had been working on it all year in speech therapy, so I was really proud of myself. It was slower than regular speech, but it was understandable and my voice did not warble or crack, so I was fairly happy with myself for saying that many words in a row.

Everyone else in the class seemed to notice my clear words too, because suddenly the class was silent and everyone was turned towards me and wondering if they heard right.

"Masen, is there a problem?" Mrs. Breadstick asked. She was shocked that I had spoken, but she was also thinking that I was having problems with my group, because I had just told Ethan and Robby that I hate them.

I shook my head and allowed Robby to answer for me.

"No, Masen was just showing us what he learned in speech therapy," Robby supplied.

"Alright, then get back to work," Mrs. Breadstick said only slightly skeptically.

Robby and Ethan looked down at our poster then and realized that I had finished it while they were talking. "We're already done," Robby replied.

Ethan was still a little surprised that it was done and he had barely cut out one figure, so he was silent for once. He had not even pasted it on, so I had had to slip it out of his grasp and paste it on myself.

"Well then add some more decorations," Mrs. Breadstick said after glancing at said poster and seeing that it was indeed done, but a little plain.

The Whitlocks were the artistic ones in the family and right then a vision of our completed poster popped into Scryan's head, so I grabbed the markers and started drawing hearts and flowers along the edges.

"What're you doing?" Ethan asked me when I had only done a few hearts and one big purple daisy.

'Decorating,' I signed and telepathed to Robby, and went back to coloring.

"Why?" Robby asked me.

'Mrs. Breadstick said to,' I replied.

"But why hearts and flowers?" Robby asked.

And then Scryan came out of his visions for the first time all class and started laughing at me for listening to him and making our poster all girly. The rest of the class, including Robby and Ethan, looked over when they heard him and joined in the joviality. Whatever, my mom will like it.


	52. Book3 Jasper ch20

Jasper's POV:

As soon as I could and before the chaos and confusion from the rash of murders died down, I set off to find the three newborns I had smelled earlier, because they had hunted on my territory. I had sent a warning to Emilio's coven that Houston was mine, but there were dozens of newborn armies in this region, several of which had adjacent territory. I did not recognize any of the scents, so I was assuming that these intruders were from one of these many other covens.

I found them along with seven other members of their army to the east, well outside of Houston. Again I hit them with calm, lethargy, and drowsiness before I approach, so that they were all incapacitated before I began. There were more of them than there had been last time, so I was even more careful not to give them a chance to rebel. And once again I singled out the leader, lifting his lethargy enough so that he was aware, while ensuring that his followers were not even able to move.

"Hello, I'm Jasper and you've made quite a mess in my territory," I stated. I made a show of walking around and intimidating each and every one of them, but did not let the leader speak yet. "Houston is my territory and I'll _not_ allow any hunting in my territory, unless it is by me. You do not seem to be aware of that, because three of your rank broke that law and took six of my humans.

"Six of them! Houston is such a small town that your activity has caused me quite a commotion. Your actions, combined with my own hunting needs, lead to seven humans being murdered within a twenty-four hour time period, in a town with only a few hundred people. Did you think it wouldn't be noticed? Did you not think _I_ would notice? Or have you not heard of me?" This time I lifted the grogginess and lethargy enough for their leader to answer my question and compelled him to explain himself.

He was a bit short for a commanding officer, but he was a large muscular guy, with a body type similar to Emmett's. Only Emmett was not so short, did not have nearly as many scars, and was not missing patches of his hair where it had been pulled out by the roots. This man's eyes were a darker shade of red than the others and that combined with the marks of war etched into his body, clearly identified him as the leader. Plus he had an air of superiority, authority, and confidence to him and the others looked at him with respect, so I was positive I had the right guy pegged as the leader.

"We've never heard of you and weren't aware of the occupation of Houston. We thought it was fair game and were just passing through on a reconnaissance mission to the north. Our leader, Adrian, is concerned about the movement of Carlos and his army. They normally stay in northern Texas, but we've found their trails in our lands, to the east of here. We just wanted to know if they were planning on attacking us. If you let us go, we'll make sure to avoid your lands from now on," the leader said. He was trying to save his skin, by saying whatever he thought I wanted to hear, but I could tell he wanted to end me, despite the calm I was still subjecting him to.

"I'll let you go, to deliver a message to your leader. However, I can't do the same for all of your soldiers. Three of them took from my land and the penalty for that is death," I said, before ripping off the heads of the three whose scent I recognized and sending fear into the observers. I even lifted the peace and allowed their own rage to simmer so that they would remember this day and know not to cross me, but I did not relinquish the lethargy, so they could not fight back.

I started a fire and disposed of the remains as painlessly as possible, because I had long ago grown wary of torture. I did not like to kill, but I could not show weakness now, so I carried on with what I knew needed to be done. "Any vampire caught taking humans from the Houston area will meet the same fate," I said once I was done. "And if one of my humans travels outside of Houston, to your territory, you're not to touch them. My humans are my property."

"How do you expect us to know one of yours if it leaves your city?" the leader asked sarcastically. "All humans look the same to me."

"What's your name?" I demanded. He had told me the name of his leader, but not his own.

"Raul," he answered. "But you haven't answered my question." He was getting bold, brave, and defiant. If his army was capable of backing him up, he would have attacked me, but as it was, he was not yet ready to attempt to take me on one on one.

"By their smell. If they smell of me, they're off limits," I said. As I was talking, I started to think about Mariel and the possibility that a vampire would come across her scent while she was away in Arizona and that I would not be able to protect her. If I could just put out word not to touch my humans and make the ones who are mine clearly recognizable, then she would be safe even if she happened across one of my kind.

"And if they bathe and don't smell?" he asked, trying to bait me into a fight. He was too scared to attack first, so he was hoping I would save him the trouble.

"I'll mark the ones I'm particularly saving. How about I write my name on their foreheads; is that good enough for you?" I asked.

I had seen vampires mark humans before, when they wanted to drink said human themselves. We used to do it back in Maria's coven when we would bring humans into our lair to feed more leisurely or when we wanted to take a snack along on a long desolate journey. Once I had hid in the desert watching another army's activities for two full weeks and I had brought along two humans to keep me satisfied for the journey. I went with Peter and to make sure that we did not mix up our food, we wrote our names on them.

I used a vampire tooth from one of my many victims and finely carved my name in very small print onto their foreheads. They bled at first, but it quickly scabbed over and by the time I killed them, their wounds had heeled and clearly spelled out my name. The letters were whiter than the rest of their skin, but it was so tiny that the humans could not read the names on their fellow captive's foreheads. Peter and I had a good time trying to make them guess what the small markings on their forehead meant. We were a little more macabre back then than we are now.

I could use the same technique to mark all of the humans that I wanted to make safe here, so that even if they left Houston, other vampires would still know that they were off limits. I could mark Mariel, Mariam, the Jacksons, the Allens, and maybe even the Whitlocks, because it would not do for Grandpa Whitlock to die at the hands of a stray vampire before conceiving my father. Grandpa Whitlock was always traveling and trading, as part of his business, so his safety was a real concern.

"Why does it matter to you so much? There's plenty of food around here," Raul replied.

"I'm trying to breed tastier humans," I lied, thinking back to Allison's creation of a tastier flavor of synthetic blood by combining Classic and Sudanese proteins together in the same blood cells. It had been such a hit that even non-vegetarians were ordering packets of synthetic for dessert.

"How?" he asked, suddenly in awe of me. I had impressed him with this idea.

"I found a strain of particularly tasty ones; very sweet and juicy. And I have another strain of nutty tasting ones, so I'm combining the two and in a few decades we'll see if I get anything edible. If I succeed, I'll start farming the humans and then sell them and ship them out to vampire consumers everywhere." This sounded much better than the truth that I was protecting my own relatives and that was important, because vampire and human relations were scrutinized in the South back in these times.

"The Volturi would never allow it, because the humans would notice that they're being farmed like that."

"They didn't notice in the sixteen hundreds when we started shipping particularly good tasting Europeans across the globe."

It has happened many times in the past that one strain of human or another became favored by vampires everywhere. And when it happened, we would interfere so that the tasty ones spread at the cost of their blander or gamier counterparts. But Raul was not old enough to remember this and obviously no one had told him of it, because he just looked at me with dumbfounded stupidity.

"That's how Europeans came to the new world, not because Columbus discovered it. It was already heavily populated by Native Americans and vampires. The vampires knew the world was round and we were trading worldwide amongst ourselves. It was only when we realized that Europeans were sweeter than Native Americans that we planted the idea of the New-world into Columbus' head.

"It was easy enough to get the humans to go, because we promised them money, land, power, and freedom and did not kill too many of them right away. See you have to wait until they reproduce or you lose your stock and have to start all over; a few vampires learned that the hard way. And after a few decades, word got out that we had a tasty variety and vampires all over the world wanted a bite, so we started shipping them far and wide."

"Sorry, I didn't know. If you'll just let us go now, we promise not to interfere," Raul said, backing down now that he was impressed by me. "Maybe if it works out I could talk Adrian into joining your venture. It sounds like a fine idea."

"Very well, you can go, but don't let me catch anyone from your coven feeding within my territory again," I said and he nodded.

Raul's feelings were sincere, so I turned around and left. I did not release my hold over the men until I was over a mile away, so that I had a reasonable head start in case one of them changed their mind and decided to come after me. I made it all the way home without feeling their presence, so I decided to go ahead with my earlier plans. I had slipped a tooth from one of my victims into my pocket as I tossed the heads into the fire and it was time to use it.

I explained to Mariam and the Jackson's what I was doing and they were upset by the idea of me carving my name into their foreheads, but once they realized it would make them safer, they started offering up the babies too. I did not give an explanation to the Allens or the Whitlocks, choosing instead to enter their premises in the dead of night and mark them while they slept. The first one woke up in pain when the tooth first sliced into the skin, but I used my empathy to put him back to sleep. For the rest I laid on the lethargy before I started.

The marks were so small that other humans barely thought twice about the little scabs that had appeared on the foreheads of so many Houstonites. The Whitlocks and Allens woke up confused by the matching injuries they had all received in the night and Grandpa Whitlock tried to scratch his off. Augustus was even about to burn his off when Mariam stopped him and said it was just a bug bite. The bug bite story quickly spread and people started leaving the forehead scabs alone long enough for them to heal.

Once everything was settled in Houston with the branding and with the aftermath of the seven vampire-induced murders, I took off to find Mariel. She was still in Arizona with her new husband and she was already pregnant with her second baby. I explained the purpose of the branding and then I marked her, her husband, and their first born child. I stayed with them for a few weeks and made sure my name was legible, and then I returned home to Houston and my little cabin.

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><p>Author's Note:Now Jasper's family will still be safe after he leaves.<p>

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	53. Book2 Masen ch20

Masen's POV:

It was getting towards the end of the school year; we were in those final two months and I was just beginning to think we would make it all the way through. But the rumors regarding our strangeness just kept spreading and growing and Scryan got sent home for having seizures in class practically every day now. And after having seen Scryan do it enough, the teachers began to notice the signs in Jackson, and it snowballed out of control from there.

Mr. Basil, our Music teacher, probably would not have noticed Jackson's odd behavior, but he had just sent Scryan to the nurse, led by Aiden, for having a seizure in class. Jackson was not nearly as bad as his brother, but he kept peeking into the past for the next snap-shot in his story. He had his clarinet out, like he was supposed to, but he also had his latest comic and his colored pencils out too, and whenever he put his clarinet down to rest, he picked up his art supplies and started drawing.

In Jackson's defense, it was a really good story he was working on. It was part of this series he had about a vampire warrior family. In this episode a pair of rival vampires found and attacked their secret nest, which was hidden deep in a cave high up on a cliff. The vampire parents had a new set of hatchlings, barely old enough to cling on to their parents' chests when they ran, as well as a pair of hundred year old hatchlings, who could at least cling to their backs. With four hatchlings to defend, the family would not have survived the attack if not for their older children.

The family also had a pair of five hundred year old youngsters, who stayed back in the farthest reaches of the cave guarding the four hatchlings; well not so much guard, as keep them there and not let them wander off into the danger of the fight. And so with the kids out of the way, the parents were able to defend off the first several attacks. They stood guard on high alert for some time after the intruders were finally killed, but eventually they had to leave to get food.

With that many kids, it is really difficult to hunt. Well it was not that hard to lure their human prey away from the pack, because the babies were cute and all, but it was hard to actually make the kill with one baby in your arms and another on your back and not have the humans run away screaming. So the parents went to hunt, taking only the hundred year-lings and leaving the new ones and the older set behind in the nest. And while they were gone, another two rival vampires, stumbled across their hiding spot.

They did not have a quarrel with the family before then, but once they found the pile of ash outside the cave belonging to their brother and his mate, they wanted revenge. And when they heard the cooing of the new ones from inside the cave, they knew just how to get it. The pair of five hundred year olds realized that they were being attack and knew their parents were not around to protect them, so they each grabbed a newling and prepared to fight.

In a normal fight the invading adults would have won and the children would have died, but all four children were talented, so the fight was a little more even. One of the older children was super-fast and he probably could have ran away with the newling he was carrying, passing right by the adults without them being able to catch him, but he did not want to leave his sisters. So instead of leaving, he stayed and took one-handed swipes at the intruders, retreating back before they could deliver a responding blow.

The older girl could harness the power of the Earth. Every time the intruders would come after her and her hatchling, she would make the Earth quake and attempt to open up a fissure in the rock floor of the cave. The trembling interrupted the attack and threw the intruders off guard, but the youngling was not powerful enough and the fissures were not large enough to do any real damage. The ground just would not part more than an inch or so. Mostly the falling rock from the ceiling of the cave was annoying more than anything else.

And so with the older boy running around at super-fast speeds and the older girl practically collapsing the cave, the children were defending themselves, but not escaping. In the end it was the female newling who turned the tide in their favor. She got thirsty, waiting for her parents to return and growing tired with the fight. She started imagining that one of the attackers was a big puddle of juicy warm flowing succulent savory pumping sweet yummy pulsating red blood. And since she was gifted, she made the attacker think that too. He tried to resist the urge to drink himself, but after a few minutes he gave in and started licking himself all over, curling up in a ball and rolling around on the ground to get a better taste. At least he did not bite himself.

The girl youngling just barely managed to stop her newling, who was the source of the strange behavior, from escaping out of her arms and joining the lick-fest. Instead, she and her brother took advantage of the confusion and escaped down the tunnel and out into the open. The mate of the vampire who was licking himself was so confused and distracted by his strange behavior, that she let the kids pass her. And just as they were leaving, the girl youngling finally got enough focus together to collapse the entrance of the cave, trapping the intruders deep underground; not for long, but for long enough to escape. The boy newling's powers did not help at all in their escape, but he did see the attack in all its glowing infrared detail.

The kids went to find their parents after that, scaling down the hundred foot high cliff one handedly with the babies in the other arm. The parents had just finished feeding the older hatchlings and eaten themselves and now were on their way back to the cave with four more humans to feed their other children. When the eight of them met up, they stopped and drank the humans right then and there, being very thirsty from the fight. Then the older kids told their parents what had happened and the family took off into the night to find a new hiding place to build their nest.

Jackson had not gotten to draw the part with eating the humans, but he had drawn most of the fight, including the powers and the adult licking himself at the baby's direction. He was just dipping into the past to see the looks on everyone's faces one more time and make sure he had the shadowing right, when Mr. Basil caught him.

"Is Jackson alright?" Mr. Basil asked, turning from his work with the percussion section in the back of the room and noticing, for the second time in less than fifteen minutes, the blank stare associated with a vision.

"He's fine," Lily, who was sitting right next to him in the clarinet section, answered after nudging Jackson, to let him know he needed to come back to reality.

'Jackson, Mr. Basil wants you,' I added silently, but really I just wanted to watch the vision too and see how Jackson was going to draw it.

"Sorry, I was just daydreaming," Jackson said, coming back to us and noticing Mr. Basil's stare.

"What's all that stuff you've got out?" Mr. Basil asked, thinking he had just caught a student off topic. The clarinets were not playing right now, but they were still supposed to be practicing silently, not sketching.

"Um, nothing," Jackson answered, stuffing his art supplies back into his backpack.

Mr. Basil was not having it. He went over to Jackson and confiscated his backpack, before inspecting it for illicit substances. The school board told all of the teachers to really start cracking down on drugs and alcohol, because their use in the middle school was really bringing down their national test scores, and once the kids got to high school, it was too late. He thought it was suspicious that Jackson was hiding what he was doing and seemed out of it. If Jackson was not seizing, then he was sure he was doing drugs. 'That's probably why all the Whitlock kids are epileptic anyway; drug use,' Mr. Basil thought to himself.

Then Mr. Basil opened Jackson's backpack and saw nothing but comic books and colored pencils and black markers. He was going to keep the comics and make Jackson's parents come and get them, because he had been reading them in class, but then he noticed the titles, and more importantly, the by-lines under the titles. "You made all of these?" he asked, leafing through the stack.

Jackson did not know what to say, so he just nodded and waited to see what would happen. He hoped the human would not damage his work or get greasy human-fingerprints on them.

Luckily Jackson had left all of the vampire comics at home, because his mom made him, but there were about a dozen of his most recent alien ones, as well as the half-finished vampire one he was just working on. "My year among the blue-balloon people of A57-2B, 'Miws, t'nod pots,'" Mr. Basil read one of the titles out loud. It was a story about an alien man, whose species just happened to co-inhabit a solar system with another life-bearing planet, A57-2B, that had a completely different type of sentient life-form on it. He traveled from his home planet, A57-2A, to study the blue-balloon people, who looked kind of like large blue-blobs. Their heads were part of the same blob as their body and they had two little stubby paddle-like leg-arms that helped them move through the thick atmosphere. The main character lived in a small colony of other rock-aliens that had been established on A57-2B. Rock aliens looked kind of like the statues on Easter island here on Earth; you know, made of dark gray stone with long, square, faces and no protruding limbs. They moved using an undulating motion in their posterior section, which was really fascinating to see, because it appeared to be made of hard gray-stone.

"Um, can I have those back? Those are my originals," Jackson finally interrupted, seeing that our teacher was engrossed in reading his work and getting human-prints all over it.

Mr. Basil was pulled out of reading the most fascinating comic book, with the prettiest artwork, that he had ever seen, by Jackson's comment. He looked down from the comic to look at his student, while he considered what to do. There were no drugs or other illicit material in the backpack, unless he counted the markers. Marker sniffing was a big problem, but these were not even the illicit type of marker. And the comics were made by the student possessing them, which meant they would not count as regular comic books, which should be left at home, but they were fascinating and he wanted to finish reading. He loved comics and aliens. He had even figured out that the letters in the title have to be read backwards, because the blue-balloon people of A57-2B read everything from right to left, while the rock-people read everything from left to right.

"Were you drawing one of these just now?" Mr. Basil finally asked.

"Yeah," Jackson replied somewhat abashedly at getting caught.

"Which one?" Mr. Basil wondered.

"The one with the family with all the kids," Jackson replied, not having yet given the story a title. And the series title had the word vampire in it, so he certainly could not tell that to his human teacher.

Mr. Basil flipped through the stack until he found the unfinished comic in the middle. Then he began to leaf through it and saw that it also appeared to be a wonderfully illustrated fascinating story. Without the blood drinking parts, he assumed it was about a family of super heroes. "Tell me, Jackson, why are you here in my class, when you could be in art class, where it would be okay if you spent the entire period drawing these instead of playing the clarinet?" he asked. Jackson was fairly good at playing his instrument, but he clearly had no passion for it, unlike his comics.

"My mom won't let me," Jackson answered.

"Oh?" Mr. Basil wondered.

"Our parents said we all have to take the same elective. I tried to get my mom to let me take art, but she said no, that I have to take what all the other kids are taking. And well, Scryan sucks at art," Jackson answered shrugging his shoulders. He had even asked if he could take human cooking, not that he wanted to learn to cook humans, but because he wanted to learn how to feed hosts. His family was going to have two hosts very soon and he wanted to be prepared, because he was the big brother and all. But no one else wanted to human cook, so his parents made him take band with the rest of us.

"Well I'm gonna have to call your parents and talk with them about you not paying attention and drawing in my class, but I suppose you can have these back," Mr. Basil said, reluctantly handing the comics and backpack back over to Jackson. 'I'll ask his parents for a copy to read when I call them,' he noted to himself.

Music class continued on without any further interruptions. But lunch was right after, and enough of the kids in that class had gotten enough of a glimpse of the comics to want to take a look at them for themselves, so the first half of lunch was spent with us fending off humans asking to see his work. We ended up promising to scan the comics at home and bring them all back a copy tomorrow. Well most of us were there helping Jackson, but all of his siblings were absent.

Scryan had been sent home at the beginning of music class and Ashley never did go to school with us. The twins had been mysteriously absent since snack, apparently having ditched school down into their wormholes. And Allison left us right after being let out of music, to go work on a project in her science class. The teacher was letting her do a special chemical synthesis for a report that was due soon and our parents did not want the humans to know we had chemical manufacturing facilities on our compound, so Allison had to use the school facilities.

At least that is what Allison said. In her thoughts there was some jumbled up mess about Kair and Kare telling her she had to make it at school and not to tell anyone, because it was top secret. And if everything worked out as planned, they would not have to go to school with the humans for much longer. The twins had wanted to go to human school back when it was a treat, but like all the Whitlock kids, they were long over it and plotting to force their parents' hands to end their torment prematurely.

The second half of our lunch period was spent trying to cover up Kair and Kare's stunt. As far as I could tell, the twins knew just what they were doing when they exited their wormhole and suddenly appeared in the girl's bathroom. Later, when their parents asked, they claimed ignorance; how could they possibly know there was a human girl in there already? The humans had never noticed their coming or going during school before, not even that time they had left during class. But then they had always made sure that the coast was clear and no humans were looking before. This time they waited until precisely one human, an older girl named Logan, was looking.

As part of the cover up, we all insisted that the human witness, this Loagn, was making it up or crazy or something. But no, she had clearly seen an ultraviolet-colored wormhole materialize in the girl's bathroom and the two youngest Whitlocks step out of it. The twins had missed two class periods, but they covered by saying they had been hiding in the bathroom ceiling the whole time. What Logan saw was a ceiling panel being removed and the girls jumping down, before returning it to its rightful place. Why they thought this excuse was a good cover had something to do with the fact they had to leave soon and it was time for the Whitlocks to leave human school and they were going to leave as a family.

The teachers supervising lunch that day were really upset and called the principal, who escorted Kair and Kare to his office to call their parents to come get them, because they were suspended. And if that was not enough drama for one day, Allison still had her science experiment to ruin. The last two classes of the day, for the entire school, were canceled when Allison's minor explosion brought in the police to investigate the snark production in the school's chemistry lab.

Allison had hid it from me by not thinking about what she was making. She had only started the project yesterday during lunch and I had speech therapy every afternoon and then I had to spend the evening entertaining Robby and Megan and all night with my parents. And then we only have the one class, music, together and with the drama of Scryan's seizure and Jackson's comic books, she had not had time to think about the little experiment she was planning at the behest of Kare and Kair, her troublesome baby sisters.

There was a big police investigation and the school decided that Allison was never to be allowed back there, which was just fine as far as Aunt Alice and Uncle Jasper were concerned, because they did not want their kids going to that school anyway. In fact, they were tired of Manitoba and decided to move to Texas, to be with his brother's family; they were expecting hatchlings in a few decades anyway.

And so the Whitlock kids left. They stayed around that evening for a farewell party, but they packed up and left the next day. Kare and Kair's parting was particularly poignant, because they were not going to Texas with their parents, but back to their own time and the uncertainty of the cold war that was raging between the shifters, werewolves, and vampires. They had never traveled to further in the future than they were going now, except for that one peek in which they discovered that this would one day be werewolf territory, and so they had very little knowledge regarding what to except. And given that they would never visit us at any age older than what they were right now, Eliza was still convinced that they die upon their return to their own time. But the twins had to go, because their real-time parents were expecting them, so we all hugged them one last time and watched them walk into their infrared wormhole. They kept it open longer than normal and we could see them waving from the other side for just a moment, and then they were gone.

The Hales had to stay here in Manitoba, because Robby and Megan were human. And Eliza, Aiden, Adriel, and I had to stay, because our parents said so. We could have gone to Texas too, but Grandpa Carlisle did not want to move the government and Grandma Esme had two adopted hosts in the area and blah, blah-blah, blah-blah. What did that have to do with the Masen-Swan family? We could have packed up and at least moved to the reservation or something, but no, my parents are lame and made us stay for the rest of the school year, before we moved to our house in Forks.

Our house was the only place left that was still "Forks," because the rest of it was now "South La Push," or "East La Push," or "Black Cove," because it was the only place in the region not owned by the Quileute tribe. But anyway, that is where we moved to spend more time with little White Cloud when the school year ended. At least Eliza and I did not have to stay and go through school another year like Lily, Aiden, Violet, and Adriel. Adriel and Violet almost had to go for a third year, because of their younger age and the fact that they had not graduated yet, but the human boys had gotten too obsessive and Adriel had had to fend them off a few times. And as always with Adriel, he did it in a way that was not quite gravitationally possible, especially for humans. And so Aiden and Violet were moved to homeschool on the Cullen compound, with their older siblings, for the duration of their stay in Manitoba.

Megan and Robby graduated from Pizza Hut Junior High the year after I left and then they went on to the local high school. I cannot even imagine how Robby and Megan continued going to school with those humans, but they did. They were grown-up and starting University the next time I saw them after returning from our short stay in Forks.

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><p>Author's Note: This chapter wraps up the school year. There will be just 2 chapters more of Masen's story, leading into Jasper's story.<p>

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	54. Book3 Jasper ch21

Jasper's POV:

After my encounter with Adrian's army, several more armies came to Houston to see me, only this time they were warned in advance not to touch the humans. None of them wanted to fight, but they did want to make treaties with me, because they had heard how powerful I was. In addition to the warnings Adrian's army relayed about me, there were a few rumors going around from my first encounter with Emilio's army regarding just how powerful I was and that I was not to be messed with, although none of the information I had given to Rafael regarding time travel had been leaked; evidentially Emilio was keeping that to himself.

Between the rumors from the two encounters, none of the nearby armies wanted to mess with me, hence why they all sent ambassadors to arrange treaties. I was easy enough to deal with, because I had no army of my own to support and all I wanted was one tiny city, so the various leaders of the newborn armies mostly thought they were getting a good bargain. A few of them wanted to remove me, for moral reasons, but did not have the means to do so, so they signed treaties with me instead. And so Houston was safe from vampires for a time.

Years passed while I waited and bided my time in that city, before the event I had been waiting for finally occurred: my mother was born. Mariam had waited a few years after the death of her first son before getting pregnant with her second child. When that child turned out to be a girl, she named her Ashley. She had not wanted to name the child my mother's name, because as long as my mother was not born, Mariam would be guaranteed life. But then I pointed out that my mother was her only child to survive, so if this child was not my mother, it would die. The last thing Mariam wanted was another dead baby, so she caved and named her Ashley.

"Fine, but I'm naming her after your middle daughter, not because you said I'd name my daughter that," Mariam had said.

And so it seemed that my mother was named after my daughter, meaning that I had the original cause and effect backwards. Alice did not have to know my mother was named Ashley to name my daughter after her, because my mother would end up being named whatever my middle daughter was named. If Alice had chosen the name Amy or Amber, my mother probably would have been named Amy or Amber.

My mother was an adorable, healthy, happy baby. Now that Mariam was a new mother, I started visiting her at the plantation more often, so that she would not have to come out to see me. I was still relying on her to pull my twins out of their wormhole, but also I enjoyed spending time with my mother. I did not get very many years to spend with her in my human life and I made up for that by spending the first few years of her life with her. It was a little strange, because I was the adult and she was the baby, but by now I was very used to strange.

The birth of my mother marked a major milestone for me and not just because she would need to be born in order to later give birth to me, but also because it meant I was one step closer to going home. I could not take my grandmother with me to the future to serve as a host for one of my daughters until after my mother was born, or it would destroy the timeline. Now the timeline was ensured and all I had to do was wait for my other host to be born.

Kair and Kare had told me that the second host would be a son born to my grandmother after my mother, so all that was left to do was wait for Mariam to get pregnant again. This knowledge was bitter sweet, because I really wanted to go home and return to my family, but I had gotten used to it here and was really enjoying spending this time with my human family. In my many years here I had grown close to the Jacksons and the Allens and particularly little Ashley.

Ashley was a precious ball of three year old energy when Mariam got pregnant again. Her blond hair had grown in and framed her head in beautiful curly ringlets and her brown eyes lit up whenever I walked into the room. She was so precious that I could not bring myself to tear Mariam away from her by taking her with me to the future. I knew that it was dangerous to wait, because the date of Mariam's death was quickly approaching, but I had yet to discern just how or when she would die. She was young and healthy and unless she died in childbirth or in an accident, I could see no potential cause.

There was a chance that this baby was not the host I would need. There was a second possibility, although I knew he would not grow up with my mother on the Allen plantation, because he was never mentioned to me before. The second possibility was far more macabre, because Mariam may not carry this pregnancy to term. And although that would mean the loss of a second child, it would also mean that she could potentially gain another few years with my mother. This was not likely, because I was fairly certain that my grandfather had told me that my grandmother died when my mother was very young, but as long as I did not know the exact date, I decided it was best to sit back and wait.

By the time Mariam was seven months pregnant, it seemed inevitable that this baby would be the host I was waiting for, because if I were to take them to the future, it would be viable. Kare and Kair had refused to comment on the matter, insisting on keeping us in the dark, but when Mariam came down with a fever and a headache, they finally cracked and revealed that this baby was indeed their second host. They told us that he was a boy and that Mariam had contracted smallpox.

A smallpox vaccine was already in existence, but it had to be given before the disease was contracted and was powerless once the virus was already established and spreading in the body. Now that Mariam had it, it was only a matter of weeks, possibly even days, before she and her unborn child would be dead and there was no cure. And because the vaccine was so successful, no cure was ever discovered or invented, so even if I brought her to my own time, there was nothing that our modern doctors could do.

An egg was Mariam's only hope for survival, but I did not have an egg to give, because neither Kair nor Kare's eggs had been disgorged. They were still safe and secure within my egg pouch and I did not see how I could possibly be able to save my grandmother with them before the smallpox took her life. But I had to try and I must be successful, because otherwise my girls would not have had hosts and would not be alive and visiting me.

And so I decided it was time to take my grandmother and her unborn child to the future and try to save them. If I do not have eggs ready in the present, then the present must not be our destination, and we will just have to keep going into the future until we find the date of the disgorgement. And if that does not work, then maybe Carlisle and Edward can put their heads together and find a treatment for smallpox and extend my grandmother's life long enough for my eggs to emerge, so that I can save her.

Either way, the solution was in the future, so I organized my stuff and prepared for our departure, while I awaited Kair and Kare's return. I would not be coming back, so I gave all of my possessions to Monroe. I told Augie that I was returning home to Arizona and that he was free to make whatever use of my cabin that he wanted. And then all that was left was getting Mariam away and making it look like she had died.

I enlisted Monroe to help me get Mariam away from Augie and from Houston. The plan was to use her illness as an excuse to travel with her to a major city to visit a doctor. She started off with a fever and a headache, but within three days it was fairly obvious that she was incredibly sick, so our desire to get her medical attention was not unfounded. I had already planted the seed for my departure, but now I modified it by offering my help to Monroe. I would go with them to the city and once Mariam was better, I would continue on to Arizona on my own, while Mariam and Monroe would return to Houston.

That was what we told Augie when we loaded up the carriage for the trip, but what we really did was ride out of town and find a sheltered spot to wait for Kair and Kare. We were not even settled in when I heard their familiar voices calling for Mariam to break through the fabric of space-time for them. They were a little older than they usually were when they came to visit me here, but they still could not have been more than six or seven. I greeted them with the typical hugs and kisses and then we got down to business.

"How is this gonna work?" I asked.

"Simple: Mariam opens the hole as usual, but this time all four of us enter. She won't be able to breathe in there, so you have to pick her up and run her into the present as quickly as possible. If she looks like she needs a breath of air, we stop, have her open up a hole, and get out to take a breath. Then she gets back in and we continue until we reach your present," Kair explained.

"Shouldn't we go further into the future? To when I disgorge your eggs so that I can use the eggs to save her and the baby?" I asked.

"She's not going to die this week, so there's no rush for the eggs. First we'll go to when you're supposed to be and then if Grandpa Carlisle can't stabilize her, we'll do this again," Kare replied.

"Don't you already know what happens?" I asked.

"Yes and Grandpa Carlisle is able to stabilize her, but we find it makes people more comfortable if we pretend we don't know for certain," Kair answered.

"Alright, then how often do we stop for air?" I asked.

"Twice," Kare replied.

"Let's go," Kair said giving Monroe a farewell hug. "Take care of the Jackson family."

"I will little one. You don't have to worry, because I'll get that death certificate for Mary in New Orleans just like you said and Augie will never know the difference," Monroe replied.

"We won't be visiting any of you again. Thank you for all that you have done for us and Dad," Kare said taking her turn to hug Monroe.

"You won't even come to tell me how Mariam and the baby are doing?" he asked.

"No, because we already know," Kare replied.

"They're fine. They live very long and healthy lives and they're both very happy in the future," Kair supplied.

I hugged Monroe too and wished him well, before picking Mariam up in my arms. She opened the wormhole and the four of us entered. We journeyed to the present with two stops for air just as the twins had said. Kair led the way, opening the way into the future for all of us to follow, leading us up a steep slope and then back down, and choosing the exact right points to exit. Mariam opened the final hole once we arrived and then I was finally home.

I stepped out into my living room in Texas only two feet from where I had first fallen into the hole and Alice and the children were there waiting for me. The first thing I did was lay Mariam down on the couch and the second thing I did was to give in to the nausea that had been plaguing me since the moment I stepped into the wormhole. It seemed it got worse each time I entered and exited, so by the third and final exit, I was puking all over my living room.

Alice was right there holding a paint bucket under me, so I knew my girls had already been here to warn her of what would happen, but they did not warn her of everything. They failed to mention that my eggs would be prematurely disgorged during the puke fest and neither Alice nor I was expecting to look down and see the gleaming white eggs in the bucket of blood. My first instinct was to reach down, pick up an egg, and re-swallow it, because it was too soon and Allison had told me before that a premature egg could be saved if it was re-swallowed in time.

"Wait Dad!" Kair cried.

"Stop," Kare added.

I did not want to stop and risk the health of the remaining egg, but I had a feeling that my girls knew what they were doing, so I paused my actions and waited for them to explain.

"You have to give the egg to Mariam," Kare revealed. "That's how you save her."

"We told a little fib when we said Grandpa Carlisle would stabilize her, because we didn't want you to know all of the details before it happened," Kair added.

"If you knew, you'd try to stop the disgorgement and then Mariam and the baby would die," Kare revealed.

"But it's too soon," I protested.

"It's a little early, but our eggs are viable now. It's been longer than you think, because time flows differently inside wormholes," Kair replied.

"It'll be fine, trust us," Kare added.

I did trust my girls, so I kneeled down over Mariam, handed her my second egg, and said, "You have to swallow it and then you and the baby will be fine."

Mariam was weak from her illness, tired from her pregnancy, and weary from the journey, but she reached out, took the egg, and swallowed it.

I hugged and thanked her. Then I went and hugged each and every one of my loved ones and told them how much I love and missed them. It was a very happy reunion and I was extremely glad to be home. And by the time I had explained who Mariam was and where I had been, the miracle of the egg had kicked in and my grandmother was healthy once more.

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><p>Author's Note: Just one Jasper chapter left. Please review!<p> 


	55. Book2 Masen ch21

Masen's POV:

Today I played outside with Eliza, Alex, and Olivia in La Push. Alex, Nessie's second kid, has a weak tracking power and he took on the shape of an axolotl, which is a type of salamander that retains its aquatic juvenile form throughout its life and never grows up. Well it grows up, but it still looks like a juvenile when it is an adult. He was a giant for an axolotl, which meant he was about two feet in length when transformed. His most predominant feature was his six inch long gills that fanned out around his neck and made him look like his lungs had turned inside out. He was already an adult and had recently imprinted on Olivia, but he still lived at home with his parents.

Olivia was Seth and Jennifer's third child. She took the shape of an octopus and had the power to create an artificial attraction between two people. Olivia was only four years old and looked to be a few years older than me and Eliza, even though we were hundreds of years older. The fact that Olivia was just a kid and had imprinted back on Alex was the main reason why my oldest sister insisted that Eliza and I go with them when they wanted to go swimming this morning, thus explaining our odd group.

We were playing in a secluded cove north of First Beach. It was a relatively new geographic feature, having been created during an earthquake only a few hundred years ago. It was here the first time we visited La Push, but back then it had not been reclaimed by the sea and all the rocks were jagged. According to my mom, there had once been cliffs here, but the rock had broken free during an earthquake and fallen into the ocean. It was a big dangerous mess at first, but the tribe's protectors rearranged the rock to make this sheltered cove and the waves had worn away the sharp edges, so it was now a great place for a couple of vampires and aquatic shape-shifters to play.

Eliza and I still hate each other, but when we were all alone in La Push, she was not as mean to me as when we were home with our extended family. When I was the only kid of her kind around, she actually included me on occasion and did not beat me up so much. Well she really has not beaten me up since before we dropped those homemade grenades down the toilet and she had to supervise the repairs; Mom and Dad think that she has learned her lesson, but I think she just does not want to get punished again.

Eliza and I were diving down to look at the coral and sea anemones while Alex swam through Olivia's giant tentacles when Eliza's cell phone rang. The audible ringtone feature is automatically turned off when the phones are submerged in water, but we knew it was ringing by the flashing lights and vibration. Eliza rose to the surface and I followed after her.

"Stay here and watch our nephew and stuff," Eliza said already making her way down the beach for some privacy. With her mind shield, she only had to go far enough that the sound waves do not travel to have privacy, which was quite a bit closer than if she had to go out of mind-reading range.

I complied and remained to supervise the odd pair, but it was not like an octopus and an axolotl could do anything inappropriate when they were different species, so I went back to looking at all of the sea creatures on the ocean floor. There was a really pretty green tube-like animal and some snails with ornate shells, but Eliza was gone for a really long time and I exhausted my ability to look at sea animals before she returned.

'Alex, Olivia, can we go back now?' I telepathed. I was bored and I wanted to have an excuse to walk towards Eliza so I could overhear who she was talking to. I might even be able to eavesdrop on her conversation if the hybrids were quiet enough.

The lovebirds turned back into young humans and swam to the surface. Olivia had long dark brown hair, brown eyes, and glittery russet brown skin. Alex looked very similar to Olivia, only his skin was a few shades lighter and his brown hair had a red tint where it had been damaged by the sun. And although Olivia was five times his size when transformed, as humans, Alex was about a foot taller.

"Sure. I should be getting back and make sure Mom's alright with Arwen anyway. And then we're supposed to meet Link later for our final fitting and we'll need to bathe first," Alex replied, acting like a responsible adult and stuff.

Arwen was Nessie's fourth and youngest child. She was born only five years after White Cloud, making her just a few months old now. She took the shape of an elephant and she could be a handful. When she was a month old, Mom was holding her and she suddenly turned into an elephant baby, ripping off all of her clothes, including her diaper, and pooped a big giant elephant turd all over Mom. It was really gross. The last few months have made a huge difference and she has not elephant pooped in a while, but she did occasionally still turn into an elephant and stampede the house, which is what Alex was thinking about when he mentioned checking on her.

As for the fitting with Link, Alex was referring to the fact that his brother's wedding was scheduled for Saturday and we were all in it. Alex and his little brother White Cloud were the best men, I was an usher, and Eliza was a junior bride's maid. We already had our outfits and this afternoon was to be the final fitting to make sure everything was just right.

White Cloud was only five years old, but he looked older than me. He still turned into a camel, but his mind-altering gift was now under control, so no one lost their memory around him anymore. He was mildly telepathic, and therefore more fun to hang out with than Alex. He was a bit of a trouble maker, because he would put images into people's heads and they would not realize that he was doing it; they would think that they had imagined or dreamed the image themselves. Once he even convinced Link that he was going crazy. But that was all intentional, and like a said, he did not have accidents anymore and no brains were distorted the way Robby and Megan's had been.

Sometimes White Cloud's parents would let him go south to the Mojave Desert with my family on vacations. He could really be comfortable there as a camel and run around with us. With our shields, our minds were safe from his ability, so Eliza and I did not mind it. And he had not imprinted, so he was not all mushy and love sick like Alex. Over all, he was my favorite nephew.

Eliza and all of the adults seemed to be really excited about this wedding, although I could not quite figure out why. I could read their thoughts, but I could not understand why they all thought that this union was more than a passing fancy, because Link had not imprinted. This was to be Link's second marriage. He and Anaea, Leah's oldest, got divorced four years ago, because they fought all the time about everything. Neither of them had imprinted on each other, but their relationship seemed a lot more lasting than this new one. That is it seemed strong until they had a huge fight and split up not long after White Cloud was born.

All of the shape-shifters imprint and it could be reasoned that that rule should apply equally to the hybrids. Several of the hybrids were still young and had plenty of time to imprint, such as White Cloud, Anaea's younger brother Oren, and Olivia's older sister Bianca. But then many of the hybrids had imprinted. Olivia and Alex had imprinted on each other. Leah junior, who was just a year old, had already imprinted on a young Quileute boy. And Daniela, Olivia's oldest sister, had imprinted on a Navajo shifter and already had a kid with him.

Anytime there was a relationship without imprinting, it was pretty much doomed from the start, so I thought it was fairly obvious that this relationship was just as doomed as Link's last one, because he had not imprinted on this one either. His true love and future imprint was likely still waiting to be born. Thus I did not bother figuring out things like the bride's name, although I knew she was completely human and not one of the shape-shifters. Dad said I had to keep my pessimism to myself. He seemed to think that it was not a guarantee that all of the hybrids would retain all of the shape-shifter characteristics and since vampires do not imprint, he thought it was possible that Link would not imprint even when he does get around to finding his true love…not that Dad thinks this new girl is it, because he's rooting for Link to get back together with Anaea.

Alex and Olivia were still waiting on me to reply, so I broke out of my thought, nodded, and telepathed, "Let's go."

I took off in the direction Eliza went and Alex and Olivia followed me. I was in the lead and could hear Eliza for several seconds before we arrived. It sounded like she was talking to Scryan. She was always talking to him, but then he was a lot more fun than the shifters around here, so I could not blame her for that. She continued speaking into the phone, but turned to me and signed, "I meet back house you."

I signed back, "Whatever," and then continued back to Nessie and Jacob's house with Alex and Olivia. Since we could not communicate the normal way, by reading each other's minds, we had started signing to each other; it was the one thing we picked up in human school that we actually used.

Dad was in the living room playing with Arwen, who was once again in the form of an elephant. She was smaller than a normal baby elephant and closer to the size of a large dog, which is still pretty big for a baby and explains why I did not notice immediately that Mom was also in the room. It was not until Mom stopped shielding that I realized that she was behind my large baby niece.

'Masen, you need to shower and change,' Mom thought from behind Arwen. She was patting the baby and trying to get her to calm down enough to turn back into a baby human. It would be difficult to make sure her dress fit if she was an elephant.

I did as Mom said and Eliza was back by the time I was done. It was not until two days later, after the wedding ceremony, at the reception, that I finally found out what that call was about.

"Mom, Dad?" Eliza asked. We were sitting at a table by ourselves, because no one else wanted to sit and eat with the vampires and all of the hybrids were at the main table with the happy couple. Plus, their food smelled revolting and Eliza and I preferred to be away from it.

"Yes?" Dad replied and Mom just nodded for her to go ahead.

"Now that the wedding's over, can we go visit Scryan's family? Uncle Jasper disappeared and Aunt Alice could really use your help," she replied.

'What? Why didn't you tell me about this?' I projected into Dad's head, even though the question was meant for Eliza.

"When?" Mom asked. "How?"

"Eliza, this is the sort of thing you need to tell us right away. What happened?" Dad asked.

"Kair and Kare's embryos accidentally opened up a wormhole on Monday and he fell in. I didn't say anything, because I knew we couldn't go until after the wedding and I knew you wanted to spend some time with baby Arwen," she said.

"How's that possible?" Mom asked.

"We would have missed the wedding if we'd known about the emergency," Dad said.

"If it was really an emergency, then Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rosalie would've gone and helped out. Peter and Charlotte are already there, so it's not that big of a deal. Besides, Aunt Alice would've called if she needed us," Eliza replied.

If Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rosalie were not there, it was probably because of their humans. Maybe Grandma and Grandpa had gone.

"But still, we would've gone to offer moral support," Dad replied. "What made you think a wedding was more important than your uncle falling into a wormhole and disappearing?"

"I don't know," she replied.

'She didn't want to miss the wedding, because she wanted everyone to see her in that dress. She said so yesterday,' I supplied, putting her previous comments into a new context.

"Is this true? You kept this secret from us for vanity?" Dad asked pointedly.

Eliza just shrugged, so Mom repeated her earlier question, "Kare and Kair can only transport each other. How is it that Jasper was transported instead?"

"It's not that they can't transport other people, just that they'll get stuck in time if they do, because they can only travel one way. They can transport any _one_ other person they want and since their embryos are currently inside Uncle Jasper, he was closest to the hole and fell in," Eliza answered.

"You said Emmett and Rosalie didn't go; are at least Carlisle and Esme there?" Dad asked.

"No," Eliza replied sheepishly.

"Your uncle disappeared and no one in the family went to go help Alice out? She's practically alone with all those kids?" Mom asked. She let her shield slip for a moment as she imagined toddler Kare and Kairs showing up and wreaking havoc and Aunt Alice powerless to control all six kids.

'So can we go?' I asked Dad.

"Did you know about this Masen?" Dad asked me.

'No, I had no idea, but I'd like to make sure Ali's okay,' I answered.

"Yes, we can go. Go pack your things," he replied dismissing me and Eliza.

As we left, I heard Mom and Dad going over to Nessie and Jacob to explain why we were leaving. We had been here for most of the past five years, but Arwen was less than a year old and knowing how my parents always like to spend the first few years after the birth of their grandkids here, I figured we would be right back here as soon as the situation with Uncle Jasper was resolved.

We all had our stuff packed within the hour and we were on our way to Texas.

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><p>Author's Note: So we've reached the beginning of Jasper's story, but don't worry, because there will be one more Masen chapter. I wanted to show how Alice and the kids are managing without Jasper. Please Review!<p> 


	56. Book3 Jasper ch22

Jasper's POV:

Mariam made a full recovery and the remainder of her pregnancy was uneventful, up until the birth. She gave birth to an adorable baby boy with Augie's light brown hair who she named Justin after her maternal grandfather. He looked perfect, but we had been warned by Allison that he would not be free of health concerns. The egg inside his mother's body had cured her smallpox, so the disease would not be an issue for the baby, but in the process of curing the disease, the egg also released a continuous stream of addiction proteins into his system.

All of our previous female hosts had gotten pregnant and given birth to healthy human children without complication, but they had all been infected years before the conception. Mariam was pregnant and almost to term when she was implanted. Freshly implanted eggs are not the same as established ones, because protein expression levels of the addiction factors are different in a newly implanted host compared to what is seen in a stable parasitism.

In mature parasitisms, the host is already irrevocably addicted to the egg and there is no point in bringing out the big guns. Addiction complexes work as a poison and antidote system and as long as the cell has the antidote, the poison is harmless, but as soon as the antidote is taken away, the poison kills the cell. The poison is more stable than the antidote, so if the genes controlling the system are removed simultaneously, the poison sticks around longer than the antidote and the cell dies.

The eggs come with several addiction systems, one of which is only active early on in the parasitism. The host is not killed when it is turned off in a healthy parasitism, because the egg is still present and still makes the antidote; only the poison is turned off. Over time the poison decays and the egg can dispense with the antidote as well, thus safely turning off the most dangerous and deadly addiction system. Evolutionarily speaking it is a bad idea to have dangerous things floating around in the cell, so once it is no longer needed, it is beneficial to turn it off.

If the addiction system was so dangerous, I would think that it would be evolutionarily advantageous to get rid of it all together, but that is not the case. Our addiction systems were critical in ensuring that the lysogenic viruses that evolved into the vampiric chromosomes were not lost. When we began to use human hosts, the addiction systems were coopted to ensure that the eggs were not rejected and therefore retained in the bodies of the hosts.

Our eggs are relatively inert objects and would pass through the human digestive tract like stones if they were not actively retained by the humans. It is not in the human's best interest to keep a parasite around, so the eggs would have been lost if it were not for the addiction complexes being turned on. Eggs produced both the poison and the antidote while they traveled through the human's intestine. Once they were expelled, the antidote decayed and the poison killed the human, causing a selective advantage in favor of retaining the eggs within the intestines, so that the antidote could be continually produced.

And so addiction complexes were very important in the formation of the egg host relationship and to this day the ancestral complex that was responsible for quickly killing the uninfected hosts is still expressed in the first year or so of the parasitism. It is a good thing we have Allison around to warn us of this type of thing, because if we had not known and the baby was allowed to be born without being implanted immediately, he would have died within the hour. But as it was, I had my second egg waiting for him and I personally implanted him before the cord was even cut.

Both of my eggs were implanted into my human relatives, but there was still one final mystery: how was this boy going to prevent my daughter from time traveling? What was special about him that would make the egg inside his body safe from her power? Mariam was an ideal host because she could choose to open and close wormholes at will. If a wormhole opened up, she would close it. If she found herself trapped inside one, she would just let herself out. The embryo inside her could not move independently, so it could not move through time without her physically walking through the hole. As long as she did not move in the temporal dimension, she would be able to exit the wormhole without incident, but what about Baby Justin?

There certainly was not anything special about little Justin from the looks of him. He had light brown peach fuzz on top of his head and Mariam's piercing brown eyes, but between the drool dripping down his chin and his complete dependency, it was hard to believe that he could protect my daughter from anything.

"Are you sure Justin is the right host?" I asked Kair and Kare while I babysat. Mariam was resting, so I had volunteered to look after my newborn uncle.

"Yeah Dad," Kair replied.

"And how is he going to prevent you from becoming stuck in time?" I asked.

"His talent, obviously," Kare answered.

When I stared at the girls with a questioning look, Kair continued, "He's a wormhole shield."

"No one can open up wormholes around him as long as he's blocking," Kare explained.

"And like Auntie Bella, blocking is his default state," Kair said.

"Oh. Well then you sound like the perfect host, don't you Justin?" I asked in baby talk to the baby in my arms. He cooed back at me just as my oldest four children came running into the room. "What's going on?"

"Jackson's gonna tell us a vision," Ashley answered as she and her siblings sat down on the couch.

"Okay, let's hear it," I replied.

"On the next arm over in the Milky Way galaxy there is a giant red star," Jackson began. "And orbiting that star is a huge rocky planet covered in deep blue oceans. The autotrophs there are nothing like the plants we have here, because they're blue and purple, instead of green, and they're not rooted to the ground. Instead they fly around on the currents of the wind, with bowl-shaped leaves to collect rain water. Also, they're mildly intelligent and navigate the air currents like the birds on this planet do, to ensure the best possible mix of rain and sunlight."

"How do the autotrophs stay up in the air? Do they have wings?" Ashley asked.

"No wings, they just seem to float," Jackson replied, turning to Allison to see if she had more of an explanation.

"The atmosphere on that planet is very dense, so their light bodies have a natural buoyancy to them. That and they produce hydrogen gas, which they store in an organ to increase their buoyancy further. It's like a swim bladder in fish," Allison said.

Once the question was satisfactorily answered, Jackson continued, "Having intelligent flying autotrophs makes herbivory more difficult. There's a species of six limbed sentient herbivores that ride on the winds hoping to catch them. Two of their limbs are devoted solely to flying and are similar to a bat's wings. Two wings are devoted solely to grasping and tearing and so contain fleshy digits as well as clawed ones. The remaining two limbs are multifunctional, because they have small skin flaps used in flying and grasping digits that are used in anchoring.

"They glide around on the wind currents chasing herds of the flying autotrophs. When they've caught enough to feed their village for the day, they head back to the rocky mountain tops where they make their nest. The females do the hunting and the males stay home with the children and do the cooking, so the warrior parties are always made up of females.

"Well they're not really like our females at all, but I'm calling them that because they produce the larger, non-motile gametes, like our females do. Their system is kinda like what is seen in seahorses on Earth, because the females inject their oocytes into a pouch in the male's abdomen using an ovipositor. The males then release small motile gametes that fuse with the oocytes to produce eggs. After a while the males lay the eggs in a nest and tend to them until they're fully grown."

Jackson normally started out his visions with explaining the scientific background, because he knew that was Allison's favorite part, but now that that part was over, his excitement really picked up, so I knew the battle was about to start.

"Not every member of this species was a male or a female, because there was a third sterile gender. The sterile members would normally stay with their fathers and help raise their brothers and sisters, which was especially important when there was a new clutch of hatchlings to tend to. When the father grew too old to have eggs of his own or when there were excess sterile offspring, the sterile children would go live with their brothers and help with the brother's hatchlings.

"This system worked at first, but then a power hungry female ruler came to power who decided that the males were second class citizens and the steriles were nothing more than slaves. They forced the males to tend to the eggs, even though they treated them horribly and they beat the steriles for the slightest mistake. Life was so bad for the steriles that they decided to rise up and start a revolt.

"The steriles wanted the males to join them, because they were being mistreated too, but the males refused, because they all had eggs or hatchlings to think about. They refused to abandon their children or put them in the middle of a war. Life was not as bad for them as it was for the steriles, so they decided to let things continue as they were and hope that the females would solve their political problem on their own.

"And so the steriles were on their own in standing up to the females. They ran away from their nests in droves, leaving the males to care for the hatchlings on their own, resulting in the deaths of many due to neglect. Oh the males tried their hardest to care for all of them, but there were just too many hatchlings and not enough parental figures in the nest to manage. The deaths of so many hatchlings made the females very angry.

"Females don't raise hatchlings. They refuse to have anything to do with them, even when the steriles ran away. They left the males on their own even when the hatchlings were dying of neglect. Instead of helping out in the nest, they decided to hunt down the steriles and kill them for what they had done. Only the steriles had the same idea and were already gathered and planning an attack on the females.

"There were not as many steriles born in every clutch as females, but females had a much higher mortality rate, because of all of the deaths associated with hunting and waging war, which were the domain of the females. So even though there were always more females born every year, the numbers balanced out and the sterile rebel group was as large at the standing female army. Thus numbers were not a problem, but the same could not be said for training and experience.

"The females had been trained in the arts of war and hunting all of their lives since the time when they first left the nest to go off to school. The steriles, however, had not gone to school and had spent their entire lives in the nest preparing food, cleaning, and caring for hatchlings. They had no experience fighting or planning strategic battles and it really showed when they launched their first offensive strike on the females.

"The females were taken utterly by surprise, but it was the steriles who were slaughtered. Their heads were cut off with these really long swords and their turquoise colored blood squirted everywhere. It was a blood bath with the females cutting down the steriles left and right, because their victims had not even brought shields and they did not know how to defend themselves. The only steriles who survived were the ones who ran away and not even all those survived, because if any female spotted it, she would run after it and kill it.

"When the killing was all said and done, there was only a small handful of steriles left and they decided to leave the territory and migrated to the territory of a less hostile group. The females thought that they had won and after a while they forgot all about the sterile revolt. Not all of the hatchlings had died and more were born; as always, a percentage of these were sterile, and so the steriles were replaced.

"And although the females had forgotten the revolt, the males had not and were furious with the females about the loss of their children. They did not leave the nest and they could not refuse copulation with the females, but they did decide to fight back."

"Wait, why couldn't they refuse copulation?" I asked curiously, interrupting Jackson's story.

"Well the ovipositor has these horrible barbs on it. Once it latches on to the male's penis, there is no way to get away without damaging the penis until after copulation is complete and the barbs on the ovipositor retract," he replied.

"Wait, the ovipositor goes inside a penis? I thought you said it deposits the eggs inside a pouch?" I asked confused.

"There is a structure shaped kinda like a penis as the opening of the pouch. The pouch occupies the entire abdomen, but the penis is located lower down. The female's ovipositor latches onto it and inserts itself inside until it reaches the interior of the egg pouch, where it deposits the eggs," he replied.

"And how are the eggs laid? Do they come out of the penis?" I asked, thinking that the ovipositor was either a lot wider than I was picturing or the eggs were a lot smaller.

"The eggs come out of a separate opening below the penis. It's larger, but it's completely sealed off except for when the eggs are being laid," he replied.

"Okay, I get it, you can continue," I said.

"So the males waited and bided their time and all the while they kept their plans a secret from the females," Jackson continued. "The females have nothing to do with the care of the hatchlings, even the female ones, so the males were free to influence the young females as they saw fit. They explained to their daughters about the atrocities committed by their mothers and began to train them to over throw the females when they came of age.

"Normally the young females start training with the adult females in their adolescent years as part of their school day. This still happened with the new bunch of females, only they were loyal to the males. They had been taught by their fathers to keep their opinion of the adult females to themselves and so the females were kept completely in the dark until the young females were ready and the revolt started.

"Their plan started with sabotaging the food supply. The males would send baskets of prepared food, which was basically just roasted flying plant like thing, and the young females spiked the food baskets with a poisonous animal equivalent. It looked kind of like a frog with wings when it was in its active state, but if it was blown too far away from its home, it would enter a dormant state. The dormant state was not poisonous, because it was incased in a hard shell, which was the same color as the roasted plant and it looked like the roasted plant. There were plenty of differences between the two, like the plant like thing was spongy, not hard, but as long as no one picked up or closely examined the dormant frog-like thing, no one would notice.

"None of the older females examined the food baskets or noticed the sabotage, so the frog-things were free to come out of their dormant state and start feeding on the roasted plant-thing. By the time the older females went to use those baskets of food, there were more frog-things than plant-things left. The female in charge of distributing the food dumped out the basket on the ground for everyone to get, before noticing the frog-things, which started flying in every direction once they were disturbed. And in the chaos no one noticed the young females dumping out the out baskets of poison frog-things.

"The older females went to work immediately killing the frog-things, but several of them died and many of them were injured. The younger females knew what was coming and had stayed back, out of the way, and when the poisonous threat was over, they were prepared to start the real battle. Again it was a blood bath with the long swords chopping off heads and blood spraying everywhere, but this time the mature females were already injured and tired and so were slaughtered and the young females were the victors. The young ones return the males and steriles to their rightful places as equals to the females, restoring balance once again. The three genders still had their roles, but no longer were they treated poorly based on them," Jackson finished.

With the story finished, Kair and Kare went back to their own time. Allison went to work on her computer and Scryan and Ashley took off to work on the new video game they were designing, which just left Jackson. Jackson was curiously watching me with Baby Justin, so I asked, "Do you want to hold him 'Son?"

"Would it be okay? I won't hurt him?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so," I said handing the baby over. I made sure his hands were properly placed to support the head and neck, before letting go. "I must say I had my doubts about this before, but you in particular have really come through for me. I don't think I'll ever be able to thank you enough for keeping your siblings in line while I was away."

"Allison helped too. And Scryan and Ashley helped by trying to not get into so much trouble. They've been channeling all of their mischievousness into that video game," he replied without looking up from the baby. He was concentrating very hard on gently offering Justin his finger to see if he would grab it.

"You all helped your mom get through it, but I think it was the fact that you stepped forward and took on the responsibilities of the man of the house that made the biggest difference. You'll make a great father someday," I said letting my son feel how proud I was of him.

"You think so?" he asked me as the baby finally grabbed his finger.

"I know so," I replied and he smiled happily.

My family survived the ten years of my absence without falling apart, but by growing stronger. Both Kair and Kare had hosts who would prevent them from getting trapped in another wormhole. I saved my grandmother and my uncle and granted them new lives filled with endless potential. Peter and Charlotte's first two children were born as the first of the vampire baby boom arrived, bringing children to vampires everywhere. And so my odyssey officially came to an end and I resolved myself to spending the next hundred years looking after my hosts and enjoying my family without so much as a hiccup to spoil my happiness. I lived happily ever after until the cold war with the werewolves and shape-shifters that Kair and Kare had mentioned that one time…

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><p>Author's note: The story about the alien species may seem a little out of place, but I included it, to give the Cullens some aliens to meet in the final installment of this saga, when the vampires finally make it to space. That is, if I were to write it.<p>

Please Review!


	57. Book2 Masen ch22

Masen's POV:

We took a late flight from Seattle to Texas, flew all night, and rented a car in the morning when we landed. It was six in the morning on Sunday when we arrived at the Whitlock ranch. When Ashley opened the door for us, she was the only one in sight, although I could hear the thoughts of the others in the house.

"Where's everyone?" Mom asked once we all greeted and hugged Ashley.

"Jackson's upstairs with Mom and Scryan and Allison are down in the basement doing chores."

"How is your mother coping with this?" Dad asked.

"Mild shock, but otherwise alright."

"Good. Your aunt and I will go check on her. Masen, Eliza, why don't you go help Allison and Scryan with their chores?" Dad asked.

I could tell from Ashley's thoughts on the matter that she had her own chores to tend to, because they were all helping out now that their dad was gone, so I nodded and followed Eliza down to the basement. Eliza went over to Scryan, who was doing the laundry, and began to help him, so I went over to Allison and asked, 'Can I help?'

'No, I'm just maintaining our vat of synthetic blood. I can do this on my own, but Scryan needs more help with the laundry,' she thought looking up from making her cell culture media.

I nodded and went over to where Scryan and Eliza were working and asked Scryan, 'Can I help?'

"Yeah, I swear this is the longest hardest chore on our list. Eliza and I will work on washing the clothes, but we also need to tell Ashley how much of each type of clothes we need to order. Basically that huge pile over there in the corner is all of the clothes that we've destroyed in the last month. Take that clipboard and record each garment, then take it to Ashley and she'll order new ones," he replied out loud. He knew it was not necessary, but he did not want to hold a silent conversation with me when Eliza was around. She gets jealous, even though she can read his thoughts too and I was not touching or shielding him.

'Okay,' I replied walking over to the huge pile of torn and stained clothes.

Sure enough there was a clipboard with a datasheet on it that listed all of the Whitlocks' names and the types of clothing they own. Everyone in this house wore a different size, except for Jackson and Allison, but they were different genders, so it was easy to figure out whose clothes were whose and fill out the spreadsheet. It took me a half an hour to go through the pile, but when I was done I noticed a trend: the majority of the destroyed clothing belonged to Jackson.

The laundry pile was filled primarily with shirts, jeans, underwear, shoes, and even socks that belonged to Jackson and looked like they had been shredded by friction. There was even a dress suit of his with a torn knee in the pile. And although everyone else in the family also had ruined items, no one had anywhere near the sheer volume of damaged items as Jackson did. Plus, everyone else's clothes looked like they had met a more natural fate or were caked in mud, but not like they had been used as a break in a game of asphalt surfing.

'I'm finished, but Jackson really needs to stop destroying his clothes. How'd he wear through his shoes hard enough to damage his socks anyway?' I asked showing Scryan the list.

Scryan and Eliza had been sorting clothing into piles by color and fabric type and had taken a load out of the dryer, folded it, transferred the one from the washer to the dryer, and started a new load all in the same half an hour it took me to go through the damaged clothes.

"He's not wearing shoes when he ruins the socks. Dad always tells him not to wear shoes in the house, because he doesn't want to clean up the scuff marks off of the floor and it damages the tile," Scryan replied. "Take the list to Ashley; Eliza and I'll keep working here. We still have this whole pile of ironing to do."

Scryan did have an iron, and ironing board, and a large pile of wrinkled clothes in front of him, so I nodded and took my list upstairs to find Ashley. Ashley was in the kitchen with another checklist going through all of the cleaners under the sink and recording whether or not they would need more of each one. She was on the last bottle of floor cleaner, so I waited until she was done before handing her my list.

"Thanks for helping Masen. I never realized before that Mom goes through the entire house every week and orders all of this crap online. I didn't think we went through this much stuff, but I guess with this many of us under one roof, it adds up," Ashley said walking over to her opened laptop.

Ashley was thinking about how much time she had already put into figuring out her mom's system and where and how each item is ordered. She had even been the one to print out this week's checklists and had already gone through the rest of the house. Now that she had her lists, she had to place the orders. I stood behind her and watched, having nothing better to do since everyone was still doing chores. And while I watched, I thought about the fact that the Whitlock children were doing chores instead of playing.

The Whitlock kids _never_ did chores. Their mom always did all of the ordering and kept the synthetic blood vat going. Sure Allison helped out at the blood manufacturing plant, but she never did the menial labor; she only helped come up with designs, protocols, and ideas, leaving the boring stuff for the adults. As for the laundry, Uncle Jasper always handled that along with cleaning the house and all of the other domestic chores. Uncle Jasper was not here, so obviously his chores would need doing, but Aunt Alice was here, so why were the kids doing her chores too?

I wanted an answer, but I did not dare interrupt Ashley to get it. She was hard at work with her online orders and I knew better than to bother her, because she could cause me to be in instant emotional pain whenever she wanted. She rarely turned her gift against me, but I only had to experience it that first time when I was a baby to know that it was not an experience I wanted to repeat. Despite my best efforts to stay on her good side, I still managed to make her mad and incur her wrath at least once every hundred years or so.

I waited and watched Ashley for five more minutes before Jackson came downstairs. He took the stairs too quickly and skidded to an abrupt stop on terracotta tiles, with his cowboy boots leaving thick black scuff marks in his wake.

"Darwin, 'Son! Do you hafta do that every time? I mean how many times does Dad hafta tell you not to wear shoes in the house?" Ashley asked aggravated, looking up from the computer.

"Sorry Ash, but what does it matter when I'm in charge of cleaning it up now anyway?" Jackson asked.

"Because I have to order the cleaning supplies for you to clean it with and you're damaging the floor," she replied.

"You'll have to order cleaning supplies anyway and if I damage another tile, I'll just have to fix it," he retorted.

"We both know that you've never fixed one of the tiles you've broken. But anyway, how's Mom today?" she asked.

"She's good. Aunt Bella and Uncle Edward are talking to her now," he replied.

"If she's so good, why'd she leave us while you were telling us that vision, only to hide herself away in her room for the last hour?" she asked.

"It's like I told you before: she just wants some time alone to check the timeline for any blind spots in her vision. She's looking for if Dad'll come home today and also if Kair or Kare will stop by for a visit," Jackson replied.

"Then why do you always go up there and sit with her while she does it? The rest of us have been doing the day's chores, even Masen and Eliza, and we could've used your help," she replied.

"She gets a little upset at the end when she confirms that today won't be the day she sees Dad again. I just want to be there for her so that she doesn't face it alone and I do my share of chores all day long. Don't forget I cleaned the entire house yesterday while you three were outside playing," he said.

"Whatever," Ashley replied.

With the argument over, Jackson proceeded to clean his scuff marks off of the floor.

"Hey Masen, want to help me take out the trash?" Jackson asked when he was done. He was thinking about the can full of empty synthetic blood pouches from this morning's meal.

'Sure,' I replied and followed him to the kitchen and then outside to the trash cans.

The cans were located all the way on the edge of the property, where the driveway meets the street, because the humans come to pick it up once a week. I watched as Jackson pulled out each pouch and washed the remaining residue out before throwing them away.

'What's with all of the chores?' I asked while I watched.

'We all promised Dad we'd help out more when the twins get here, so now we're just trying to show Mom that we can keep our word and be responsible. She's still taking this one day at a time and if we don't help out, this place will fall apart. If that happens, we'd have to leave and none of us want to leave without Dad, because we don't want him to come back and find that we're not waiting for him,' he thought as he continued his work.

'This is the first time your mom's been left alone with all of you, isn't it?' I asked.

'Yeah, and we really want to show Dad that he can trust us enough to leave us with Mom again. Kair and Kare said that he can hear and see us through the wormhole when we're in the living room and we don't want to add any more stress to this ordeal for him.'

'What's it like not having your dad around?'

'Weird. He's always been there and even when he goes away, he always called, but now he can't even call and we're all worried about him. Plus we're worried about Mom.'

'How'd she take it?'

'She stayed calm for the first day, but it was more like she was in shock and was doing what needed to be done until the shock sunk in. Now she's mostly normal, but then she drifts off into her visions and ignores whatever's going on around her. She's always had visions, but these are different, because she's obsessed with them. If you think about it, Dad's life hangs in the balance here, because if Kair and Kare's embryos are destroyed, he'll never be able to get out of that hole and come back to us.'

'I'm sorry. I hope he comes back soon; he's my favorite uncle,' I replied.

'Me too,' he thought.

I helped him with the last couple of pouches and then we went back to the Whitlock house and replaced the trashcan in the kitchen. Ashley, Scryan, Eliza, and Allison seemed to have just finished with their chores and were heading out with a football and Aunt Alice was sitting on the couch talking quietly with my parents.

'Do you want to go play with them?' I asked Jackson.

'No, I can't play, because I have to put all of the clothes away. And then someone has to be here to switch the clothes when it's time,' he replied silently. 'But you can go ahead.'

I wanted to see what the adults were talking about, so I volunteered to help Jackson put the clothes away. Aunt Alice has always believed that clothes were a onetime use thing, but she let the kids wear their play clothes until they wore out and even dress clothes were being recycled now that she was not ordering new clothes, so there was a bigger pile of freshly laundered clothes than I have ever seen before in the Whitlock's house.

I took a basket full of Allison's clothes up to her room and put them away while I listened to what the adults were saying downstairs. Mostly Aunt Alice was relaying every detail of what had happened with Uncle Jasper to my mother and then the three of them started trying to come up with a plan to get Uncle Jasper back. By the time I had finished putting Allison's clothes away, it was obvious that there was no new information since what Eliza had told us yesterday and that my parents had no new ideas on how to save my uncle, so I decided it was hopeless and went outside to join the other kids in their football game. I telepathed to Jackson as I left, but he still had a lot of laundry to put away, so I went without him.

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><p>Author's Note: This is the last Masen chapter. I've still got 10 more chapters to wrap up all of the loose threads, but they don't fit in the first three books. Thus I'll be starting a fourth book next chapter, without a fixed POV; it'll just be whoever is best able to tell a certain piece of the story. Up next will be Emmett and the story of how Robby was implanted.<p> 


	58. Book4 Emmett ch1

Emmett's POV:

"Hello," I answered my ringing cell phone with one hand, setting the scraper back in the tub of spackle with the other. It was not often that I had time to myself without the children, so I was doing some much needed house repairs. Between the juvenile vampires and humans running around, I had a lot of repairs to do, including fixing this hole in the dry wall.

"Dad?" Megan's voice rang out on the other end. She sounded worried; panicked almost.

"Yeah sweetie. Is everything alright?" I asked concerned, screwing the cover back onto the spackle so that it would not dry out. Is it enough to say that Jackson has been over recently? It would be if you knew the kid. The hole in the wall certainly knew him. It is no wonder Alice chose wall and floor coverings made of synthetic spider silk protein for her house. That being said, he was by far my favorite of Alice's kids.

"No. You gotta come get Robby."

"I'm on my way," I said grabbing my keys and taking the cell out the door with me. I affixed it to my face and went for the car. I was considering ditching the car and just running to my children, because that would be quicker, but it would be easier to bring Robby back home if I had a car. On the other hand, it would not matter if I had a car if I got there too late. Megan was still on the other end, but she was panicking instead of giving me information on her brother. "Megan honey, calm down and tell me what's wrong with Robby."

"I think he might die!" Megan exclaimed as I started up the car.

"Is this worse than usual?" I asked, pulling the car out of the garage and getting under way.

Robby was sick, but then he has been sick since he was a baby, which was why he was given away and Rosie and I were able to adopt him. He was labeled as a defective, because of a genetic defect he had. His body made a mutant protein and without the correct version, he would die. The humans had been adding back the correct version twice a week since he was born; their technology was getting better, but it was not perfect. The bad version of the protein still had to be removed or it built up in his system and caused his immune system to attack his own body. So the doctors filtered the bad protein out of his blood on those twice weekly visits and as the years increased, so too did the visits. He was up to five days a week now, but it was too late, because too much of the mutant protein had permanently affixed itself to his tissues.

Robby was dying. He was twenty-seven years old in an age when humans lived to be four hundred. He would never live to be one-tenth of that; not unless he holds on and fights for another year and my egg comes soon. This was Larissa and Nikolai, my first hosts, all over again, with the endless waiting for our eggs to come and hoping our humans do not die first. Megan would not die, that much was for certain. Her neurons had just barely begun to degenerate, so she had another ten years on her, easily. That was plenty of time for the eggs to come.

"Yeah Dad. He's worse," Megan answered.

"How so?" I asked, even more concerned than before. Maybe I should ditch the car and run to him.

"Well he's been trying to keep up with all of his classes," Megan began.

It was the first week of school. It was Thursday afternoon, so school was not even out for the week. In fact, Robby and Megan were supposed to be in class right now; I knew their schedule, just as I knew all my children's schedules.

Lily and Violet would normally be with me at this time, but the Whitlocks were in town, just back from Texas. They were not staying, but they were here for the week to attend a congressional meeting. Jasper had not attended one in years, but he had recently been rescued from being trapped in a wormhole with his twin time-traveling monsters and Carlisle wanted to show the vampire-world that he was still alive, because rumors of his death were wide-spread. But that would not be until tomorrow and today he was watching the kids over at his old house.

"But he wore himself out and has been sleeping since he got back from his blood filtering yesterday. I tried to wake him for class this morning, but he just moaned and turned over, so I let him sleep. I came back to see if he was ready for our afternoon class, but he just started having a coughing fit and moaning worse. Please come quick Dad, I think he's dying this time," Megan continued.

Megan and Robby had finished junior high, high school, and undergrad. They both took a year off after the latter two to vacation and see the world with our family and now they were two years into a master's program. They were almost done; this was to be their last semester. Megan could still finish and Robby had been insistent that he wanted to finish before he died. He was only getting sicker each year, so if he quit he did not think he would ever recover sufficiently to go back. He really wanted a PhD before he died, but he had already acknowledged the fact that he was too sick to make it. Rosalie and I told him not to give up hope, but we did not tell him about the eggs or the cure they would provide, so he was forcing himself to keep going through one last semester of school.

"Okay, I'm almost there. I'm pulling into the parking lot now," I said and I did. Their school was fairly close to our Manitoba house, which was why they picked it.

"Hurry," Megan replied.

I did. I parked the car in the handicap spot right in front of their dorm, checked to make sure no one was looking, and ran as fast as I could to my boy. My Robby has been legally handicapped, due to his illness, for the last five years or so. He was a good sport about it, making jokes instead of getting bitter. It was just another necessity in his life that he dealt with.

I opened the door with my spare key and let myself into their two bedroom apartment-style dorm. Megan was waiting for me in Robby's room. Robby was lying there, asleep again. He actually did not look that much worse than he does every day after getting back from his blood filtering. It takes a lot out of him. Only it was three pm and his appointment was not until five. He should not look like this for another three hours.

There was no way Robby was going to be able to make it to his out-patient appointment today; the nurse practitioner would have to come to him. He hates when she comes to us, because it makes him feel sick and weak. If he can just go to the hospital, he still feels normal. It was the same reason he insisted on continuing school, even though he was too sick to finish.

"It's okay sweetie, I've got him now," I reassured Megan as I picked Robby up. "Grab his books in case he feels better and wants to study." And with that I carried my boy out to the car and placed him lying down in the passenger seat.

I used to drive around a van, because I was always carting so many kids back and forth to human school and other activities. But lately I have only ever had four kids with me at a time, so I switched to a five passenger sedan. It was smaller, but there was still enough room for Robby to lie down in the reclined front seat and Megan to sit in the back on the other side. Rosalie had even added in a special harness designed to hold Robby in tight when he was lying down, because the regular seat belt used to slip; he was sick a lot and moving him like this was becoming an increasing occurrence.

"I got it," Megan said, coming out of the apartment with two backpacks and locking the door. They had enough clothes at home that they would not need to pack any; unless of course they wanted me to do their laundry. They always brought me home a bag of dirty laundry every Friday. But it was only Thursday, so there was no laundry today.

Megan got in the car and we drove home. She would have to email her teacher about the missed class. It was the first one of the semester, so she would miss the lecture on the syllabus, but she could catch up. Robby, on the other hand, would not be going back. I will have to email his teachers for him and drop all of his classes online. He could go back when he gets better; after I implant him with my egg. He will want to go back right away, but it is time Rosalie and I use his suggestibility to keep him home.

White Cloud, Bella and Edward's camel of a hybrid grandson, had wiped both Megan and Robby's minds back when we were first adopting them. They retained all of their memories and ability to think, but they lost some of their free-will and decision making abilities. Rosalie and I would never have allowed such a thing to occur, but no one had known what White Cloud's powers were at the time and Kair and Kare had orchestrated the whole thing to happen so quickly that none of us could stop it. Jasper's twins were trouble.

Robby was worse than Megan when it came to free-will. Megan could still differentiate some of the ideas that were her own from those of others. Take for instant her dating life: she has a boyfriend and has been dating him for a long time. She figured out, on her own, who she was attracted to. Rosalie and I had to encourage her a little bit and reassure her that it was okay, but she made the decision to like him back on her own. Robby, on the other hand, just mirrors back any attraction that is shown to him.

I would not have figured it out on my own, but all three of the mind-readers assured me that it was happening: Robby was crushing on anyone and everyone who showed interest in him. It started with a crush on Ashley when she had only been meaning to make him like her as a friend. Then there was a long string of crushes from school, both male and female and of every race and clique imaginable. The boy had no taste of his own and I mean that literally, not as a bitter father.

Rosalie and I would love it if we could just get some kind of indication from him regarding his tastes, because then we could play matchmaker and try to set him up with nice girls or boys his own age, but that was not to happen. Eliza told me once that she believes Robby was brain-washed too soon, before he had gone through puberty. Sure he was already into the growth spurt, but sexually he was not there. His body has kept growing, but his mind has not been able to make a new decision of his own since. That is probably why he is so insistent upon his school work: that was where he was at mentally when his mind was turned to mush and that is probably where he will be for the rest of his life, because there was no way to reverse what White Cloud did.

There was a reason, of course, why Kair and Kare had wanted to use White Cloud's power of suggestibility on my humans. My hosts were increasingly around and all of the children, including the troublesome twins, were charged with keeping the secret from them. It was hard work for the kids and the humans were bound to notice the peculiarities sooner or later. But now that Robby and Megan were highly suggestible, they just suggested that they not notice anything strange. In the twins' minds, they were just solving all our problems, again. I wish they would keep some of their solutions to themselves.

I tucked Robby into his bed and called his doctors. They needed to know that he would not be making his appointment this evening and that they needed to send a nurse practitioner out to us instead. I would ask about taking him to the hospital, but I already knew the answer: there was not much else they could do for him at the hospital. They would give him an immune-suppressant, but then the nurse practitioner was going to give him that when she arrives anyway. And with Rosie's medical knowledge, she could monitor his vitals, make sure he was hydrated, perform CPR, and even give him a blood transfusion, if needed. I was not technically certified to do any of those things, but after having Nikolai, Larissa, and now Robby, I could do them too.

Back in the day I would have asked Carlisle or Edward to treat my son. I trust them and know that they would do the best job possible, because they do not suffer from the usual human short-comings, so there would be no mistakes. But neither Edward nor Carlisle had any special expertise in this area. They could do it; they just could not do more than the humans and there was something the humans could do that vampires could not.

Robby has been seeing his doctor since he was first placed in the group home back when he was a baby. Keeping his doctor the same provided him with a sense of stability and trust that was more valuable to his mental well-being than having a vampire doctor. Besides, the hospital has robots double-checking all procedure, so mistakes were exceedingly rare. And Carlisle and Edward were each busy with their duties in our new government. They would stop everything and come help me if I asked them to, but they were not needed, so I did not ask.

While I waited for the nurse practitioner, I pulled all our medical equipment out of the closest and hooked it up to Robby. I measured and recorded his vitals, finishing just as Rosie came home with Violet and Lily. She made the executive decision not to wait any longer and gave Robby a shot of the immune suppressant, before starting up the blood filtration machinery. Robby started breathing more easily almost immediately, although the nurse practitioner was slightly upset with us that we had not waited for her and all she was needed for was to update his chart.

Robby slept for twelve hours after that, Rosie went back to work, Lily and Violet went back to the Whitlocks' house, and Megan went back to school. And still Robby slept. When he finally woke up I fed him, bathed him, and changed his pajamas and bed sheets. And he was so sore and tired that he did not even fight me on being treated like a baby, like he normally does. I think that if he was not stuck on the mind-set he had when he was twelve, he would have realized by now how sick he was and not fight to be normal so hard, but it is what it is.

Robby fell asleep again as soon as I stopped fussing with him for two minutes. I did not want to leave him, so I just stayed by his side and held his hand, rubbed his back, or stroked his hair to let him know that Daddy was here. I was still stroking his hair when I heard two sets of human heart-beats approach. One was the faster, tiny flutter of an infant, while the other the steady beating of an adult. I recognized the pair to be a sure sign that Jasper was here.

Jasper's hosts were a first; a mother and son pair rescued from the past. They were his own grandmother and uncle and they were both dying of smallpox before Jasper retched up those twins and implanted them. And even more unusual was that both humans were talented. Mariam had the ability to open and close wormholes, while her son blocked the formation of wormholes altogether. They were the perfect combination of hosts for a pair of time-traveling twins; at least this time we could be sure that no one would accidentally fall into their time-holes and get trapped for a couple of decades like Jasper did.

"Wait here," Jasper's voice ordered from outside my house.

It was not that unusual for him to ask his humans to wait outside while the vampires talked. What was unusual was that Robby's breathing picked up and he started moaning. His body spasmed a few times and then he was sound asleep again, only now he smelled like hormones and sex. Well he smelled like hormones before, which was part of why I washed him, but Jasper had clearly tampered with my human's emotions. I really wish those Whitlocks would stop medaling with my human.

And then Jasper let himself into my house and up into Robby's room. "Sorry Emmett, but the horniness your human was giving off was unbearable. You either need to get him laid or teach him to take care of his problems himself. Otherwise it's just going to keep happening while he's asleep. Speaking of which," Jasper said, leaning over and touching Robby on the shoulder.

Robby started moaning and rutting into the mattress, but again it was over in a few seconds.

"Stop that!" I ordered.

"Sorry again, but you're giving your human blue-ball. You're sitting there rubbing him when you don't even let him date," Jasper replied.

Robby was not a total virgin. We let him go out with Megan to parties when he was in high school. The problem was that all of the mind-readers and psychics were away at the time and when Edward returned, Rosie and I did not like what he had to say. Robby was being taken advantage of by a boy named Ethan. Basically Robby did and liked everything Ethan told him to do and like. Robby consented and Ethan did not exactly hurt him, so it was not like we could file charges with the police, but Rosie and I did sit this boy down and ask him his intentions towards our son. That conversation did not go well; he fled and Rosie and I let him live, but Robby was left broken hearted. We had to suggest to him that it was no big deal and ever since then, Robby has not dated.

"It's not that we don't want him to date. He just can't decide for himself who to date, thanks to your twins," I said. He chose Ethan not because _he_ liked him, but because Ethan liked him.

"Then let him date everyone who comes along wanting to date him."

"That's not right and it'll probably get his heart broken again." Jasper was not around the last time, so he did not know how bad it had been.

"Then suggest to him that it's not broken, like you did the last time. You know, the only difference between him and Megan is that Lily told Megan it was okay to date that boy and Masen told Robby not to date the first dozen boys and girls he liked? It was only when Masen and the Swans left that he was free."

"No, that's not true." It could not be true. Rosalie and I told Lily and Violet not to suggest anything to either of the humans. They would not go behind my back and manipulate them, would they?

"It is. The kids were talking about it today. Eliza was telling Masen how it was all his fault. It was a pretty big argument that I had to pretend not to hear. They worked it out in the end though, so keeping quiet was worth it."

"Wait, you heard Edward's kids confess to tampering with my Robby and you pretended like you could not even hear them just to see if they could work out their differences on their own?" I asked, getting angry.

"We agreed on this: the kids have to be given some space to make decisions and mistakes on their own or they'll never learn independence. We can't watch them forever and they need to feel like we're not watching them now. Besides, it's like I said: they worked it out on their own," Jasper replied, misinterpreting what I was angry about.

"No, I'm mad that you didn't scold them for messing with Robby. What if he's messed up for life?" I asked.

"Just suggest to him that he's not."

"That's not funny," I said, but I could not help but laugh. It was all Jasper's fault. "Fine, it is funny. What do you want?"

"You do remember that you agreed to watch the humans during this congressional meeting. That means Robby, Megan, Mariam, and the little squirt. Bella is watching her kids and Scryan and Allison. Charlotte is watching her two, Ashley, Jackson, and any Kair and Kares that are around. And Vladimir agreed to take Aiden, Adriel, Ramsey, and Cabar. That just leaves Rosalie to watch Violet and Lily and help _you_ with the humans."

Ramsey and Cabar were Benjamin and Tia's orphaned leeches. Esme and Carlisle adopted them and Vladimir appointed himself the step-grandfather, in honor of his long standing friendship with the Egyptians. He has been around a lot lately. I guess he feels like the odd wheel out now that Stefan remated, so he has latched onto our family. He was a nice guy once you got passed the whole, "He looks like Dracula," thing and he was good with the kids.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember," I conceded. We had all agreed on this arrangement, but that was before Robby had gotten worse.

Normally Jasper would just watch all of the kids while the rest of us went to the congressional meeting, but this time Carlisle wanted him to go. Without him, the kids were being split up, so that the adults did not get overwhelmed. I was skeptical that everyone could watch the children they were assigned, but the plan was that Rosalie would be available to help out anyone who was being over-powered by demon spawn. As it was, I was likely to be overwhelmed watching all of the humans.

"Don't worry: Mariam watches the baby herself. I could have left her at home, but I need to make sure they're protected from all the vampires in these parts."

"Hey," I hissed. "Don't use the v-word in front of my human."

"Don't worry: he's out."

"Still," I complained.

"Fine. So with all of us in our meeting, this would be the perfect time to sneak in and take my grandmother, but mostly I think one or more of my kids might get away from adult supervision and make their way back to our house. And if they do, I don't want the humans to be there alone. Just set Mariam and the baby up in your guestroom for the weekend and everything will be fine."

"I guess."

"And give that human of yours a bath; he smells."

With that taunt I stood up and reached for my brother's throat, attempting to put him in a chokehold, but he just ducked out of the way.

"And whose fault is that?" I asked.

"Alright, it's mine. Oh, and when he wakes up you should probably suggest to him that he doesn't have a crush on me."

I lunged for him again, but he side-stepped me and moved towards the door. "I'll send Mariam and the baby in now," he said and with that he was gone.

Mariam was nice enough to wait in the living room while I gave Robby a bath and then I did just as Jasper had suggested and set her and the baby up in our guestroom.

Rosalie came home with Megan, Lily, and Violet, and the eight of us had a pleasant enough weekend together, mostly because Robby finally started feeling a little better. He even developed a crush on Mariam and started dating her once he was implanted and healthy again. Masen told me that Robby only liked her because she reminded him of Jasper and Ashley, but Rosie and I agreed that it was time to let him grow up. If Mariam breaks his heart, then we will just have to deal with it when the time comes, so we suggested to him that he goes for it.

Rosalie and I each disgorged an egg. She had a girl, Lilac, and I had a boy, Emmett Junior. We were both extremely excited and of course we pestered Alice for a sketch. Emmett Junior had Rosalie's face and my dark hair; he looked a lot like Violet did as a baby. Lilac looked more like me, but with Rosalie's curly blond hair and she reminded me of my Angel Rose. I did not want to see Robby or Megan go, but I longed to see my new flower and my little man more and more each day.


	59. Book4 Peter ch2

Peter's POV:

I casually pushed the flimsy human stroller through the State park. It was one of those high-impact heavy-duty jogging models. Bright red with four inflatable wheels and two seats; it was just the sort of thing I never pictured myself owning, not even in a thousand years. But it had been a thousand years and then some. It had been fourteen hundred years, in fact, since I was born. Twenty less since I was changed, but who counts a few decades when you have lived for centuries?

That is not exactly true. Charlotte and I have been counting decades lately. We have been counting years, months, and dare I say it? Days. Yes, ever since the Volturi war ended, our lives have changed dramatically and we have been counting the days. Not out of boredom, but out of anticipation and then wonder. Anticipation for the hatching and wonder after it did finally happen. Ever since we implanted a pair of human hosts, our lives have had new meaning, excitement, joy, and most of all, love.

I have never loved somebody as much as I love Charlotte, but now I have two someones that I love equally to my wife. Jace and Kynna with their pale blond hair, bright red eyes, and chubby baby faces were the two new loves in my life. Can you believe it? Me and Charlotte with babies? And not just one, but two; one for each of us, because we each carried an egg in our egg pouches. Having an egg pouch does not sound very manly or ferocious, but do not let that fool you, because vampires are even more deadly when their eggs are around.

Deadly was a good word to describe me right now, although I had already fed and was not looking for a drink; for myself at least. This was to be their first drink. Jace and Kynna's first kill. They had had plenty to drink before, but that was hours ago and synthetic. They were thirsty again. They were a few weeks old and Charlotte and I have been counting and savoring every minute of it. It was finally time.

It was time to set our son and daughter on the right path. On our true, natural path, as vampires. Not this synthetic path of drinking fake blood from a pouch, but the pulsating rich juicy sweet path of drinking the real stuff straight from the source. We just needed the perfect source, hence why we were at the park stalking our prey in a bright red stroller of all things. We had to blend in.

Charlotte and I had spent years shopping with Alice, my brother Jasper's obsessive wife. We debated every single little baby item that we could not possibly ever need. It was clothes and toys at first, but then it was baby furniture and strollers and something called diapers. And in the end we did see. We understood just why we needed all of these items. They were props to blend in. We needed to blend in so that no one ever notices the predators among them, sniffing out the weak and the vulnerable. Humans with babies would have diapers with them.

It would look strange to the humans if we carried two babies in our arms all of the time. Especially such heavy, sturdy babies, like Jace. Vampire babies come out the size of one year old humans and weighing even more. Kynna was smaller and looked tiny and fragile next to her brother. Jace was a very large baby. He was not as big as Scryan, my brother's son, was, but no one was that big and Jace was still considered huge, even for a vampire baby.

And they were strong too. Already the hand rails were crushed and dented by their little hands. 'Careful, you'll break it,' I whispered, hoping the little vampires would hear me and that the humans would not.

Jace loosened his grip, letting the plastic go with a creaking noise, but Kynna held on. She was thirsty and that bit of plastic was going to pay for it. 'Kynna, we'll never convince one to go with us if you break it,' I said, urging my daughter to listen.

She finally let go, revealing the mangled impression of her hand. Alice was right again. We would need the red cloth handrail covers that she had helped us pick out to match this stroller. The cloth would cover the dents. But then she was right about everything, including the fact that we would need the sturdiest stroller the humans make. This thing boasted to be made out of the latest superior metal alloy and capable of withstanding all but the strongest hurricanes. It would have to be.

The only problem was that the entire thing was not made out of metal alloy. The parts where the babies sit were cloth and the bits within their reach were plastic, which are both quite a bit more breakable. I wanted to replace the cloth with vampire leather and the plastic and metal with vampire bone, because both materials are infinitely more durable. I crafted many a piece of armor with such materials back when I was with Maria fighting in the Southern Wars. But I was not with Maria now. I did not have any vampire skin, bone, or sinew to work with and it was against the law to get any.

Vampires had rights now. They have the right not to be killed by other vampires, just to suit a whim or a fancy. If we have a grievance, we are to take it up with the authorities and due process must occur before anyone can be sentenced to death. The new government, run by the Cullens, was soft. They had yet to put anyone to death and so there were no bodies to torture and no by-products to repurpose. There was no skin and no bone to be had.

And so I made do with the crummy human contraption and continued to push. We went east, just a father out for a casual stroll with his two adorable children. We passed the play park and headed onto the jogging path through the forest. I could smell Charlotte's scent along this trail, so I knew she had gone this way, just as we had agreed. The humans would never see her though. They would not report her presence to the Texas Rangers when questions are asked later on, when a human goes missing. It would just be me, an innocent father, out with his two bundles of joy. It was the perfect disguise.

How could I have possibly done it? Not pushing a bright red stroller with a pair of toddlers in it. They would never sit still and quiet while I committed a murder. And how would I dispose of a body with only one hand? I would need at least one hand to push the stroller. Otherwise, if I left the stroller to commit a murder, someone would notice an abandoned stroller and two screaming kids. And since none of that would or could possibly happen, I would not be suspect.

This would all be easier, of course, if Charlotte and I were just to go away to hunt. That is what we did when it was just the two of us: we would take turns watching the hosts and the other would travel to some place far enough away from our Texas ranch that the authorities would never find us. If they could not find us, they could not question us, and suspicion could never fall upon us. But we could not do that now.

Now we had two new hatchlings to care for. Hatchlings that have to be fed every twelve hours; we could never go away every twelve hours. We would never be able to hunt every twelve hours, not with the latest state of the art human tracking systems. The chips inserted into every Classic at birth alert the authorities that the heart has stopped and that the victim is dead. And the authorities will come to remove the body, because it does not do to leave such unsightly messes in the park in a crowded city like Houston.

The authorities would be on the victim too soon for us to cover up the death. The latest chips were so good that they interfere with feeding. They left us feeling rushed, with no time to savor our meal. We had to hurry up and drink before the police arrived. That would not do of course. The humans could not have the upper hand. We vampires had to take back control and so a group of us got together to solve the problem.

Our new government wanted nothing to do with the solution and instead of helping, shoved packet after packet of fake cold non-pulsating blood at us and begged us to stop doing what we were turned to do; what is natural for us to do. So it was left up to us, the nomads, to organize a team of vampire engineers and computer scientists to tackle the problem and create a counter device that would cause the human chips to fail.

Computers were after my time, but I always kept up with the latest technology, because I had nothing else to do with all of the time. Sure I can spend years staring at Charlotte and admiring her beauty, but then what? Then she will punch me in the nose and tell me to get a hobby, that is what. And since I served as sort of an engineer with Maria, making things out of vampire leather and bone, engineering was the hobby I choose. I picked up a bit of computer programming, but mostly I stuck to the physical and electrical side of my craft.

And so a group of like-minded and like-skilled nomads and I got together to create a device that would cause the human tracking-chip to fail. It would fail to report the human dead and the humans would not notice that there was a malfunction for hours. They would eventually notice that the chip was sending back the same vital signs over and over again, on a continuous loop, and then they would send someone out to investigate and find the victim, but by then we will be long gone and the scene will be cleaned up and staged to look like a cougar attack.

It was a simple enough device; it was the size of a pin-head and could be stuck anywhere on the body. They were programmed to fall away from the body afterwards, so the police rarely found them. They were rarely entered into evidence and when they were, the humans never figured out the link between them and the faulty chip. The victim always appeared to have met with an accident, not foul play, so there was nothing to investigate. Well the EPA would come and try to find out why the cougars were hungry enough to eat a human, but all they would do was count the rodents in the area and conclude there was plenty for the large animals to eat.

The device was so small that we could fit hundreds of them inside a discretely sized box in our pants pocket. I had my box ready to go, in case Kynna or Jace dropped theirs and needed extras. They would only need one between the two of them, but it would not be fair to give one to one child and not the other.

Charlotte and I spent hours preparing for this momentous event. We showed both babies how to place the device on the tip of the index finger, with the sticky side facing out and ready to latch onto a human. Kynna ate one yesterday, long before we even got out of the house. Jasper had had to come over and show me and Charlotte how to pump her stomach to get it back out, so that it would not get stuck. But she was thirsty now and not looking forward to another stomach pumping, so she did as she was told and held it on the tip of her finger, waiting expectantly for the meal her daddy had promised.

I found a bench along the trail and sat down, like a tired human would. It was shaded from the entrance, so that humans in the main part of the park would not see us. It was also shaded from the sun, but it was dusk now, so that was not a problem. Not even in the open parking lot had the sun managed to gleam against our skin. I pulled the stroller shades down over both babies, just in case, and I had on my cowboy hat; anymore cover would look odd in the Texas heat.

I turned the stroller to face out into the pathway, but angled towards me, so I could keep two eyes on them. A young human male ran by, just starting his run and heading into the woods. Jace and Kynna drooled in anticipation.

"We have to wait for the opportune moment," I whispered as Kynna reached out, trying to grab the man. "Wait for one to come to you."

We waited, but we did not have to wait long before it was time. She was a small-framed woman just finishing her run and heading in towards the parking lot. I looked both ways to make sure the coast was clear and that there would be no witnesses. It was and Kynna was whining, reaching out for someone to drink. Perfect.

"Oh how cute!" the woman exclaimed, coming to a stop a few feet away. "Is your daddy taking you to the park little one?"

"Yes," I answered. "It's my first time being left alone with both of them."

To prove my point, Jace started crying, while Kynna fussed louder. The wind had blown her scent our way and their drool was now falling onto their bibs. Of course Alice was right that we would need bibs. Drool dries, but blood stains. Bibs can be easily thrown away.

I picked Jace up and started patting him, like a human would, and said, "There, there. Don't cry Jace."

"Well I'm sure you're doing fine," the human replied.

"Do you have any?" I asked.

"No, not yet. But I have a niece about that age," she replied. I could tell she wanted to hold them. They were very cute. Downright adorable. How could anyone resist?

Kynna started crying too. I shifted Jace into one arm and reached out to Kynna with the other.

"Then do you know what to do when they both start crying at once?" I asked, bouncing Jace and nodding my head towards Kynna.

"Here, let me take him," the human said, reaching out towards Jace, while I clumsily, like a human, tried to pick Kynna up with my free hand. I could easily unclasp the flimsy plastic latch that held my daughter in and pick her up one handed, but a human would struggle with it.

Just as I was thinking that there was no way the latch was going to last, Kynna lurched forward and broke it. Alice was right again; we would need spare safety straps for the stroller. If only I had some vampire leather to fashion some real straps out of.

I handed Jace over to the human and watched as he made contact, sticking the small pin-prick sized device onto her arm. She adjusted for his unexpected weight and shifted him onto her hip. I picked Kynna up just as the human started making weird cooing noises at my son. Why do humans always make such weird noises at babies? Maybe it was because Jace was making them back at her.

Kynna reached out, trying to grab hold of the human too, and Jace bit into her neck, which was perfectly positioned below his mouth. I did not even have to intervene; he just instinctively knew where to bite and then he was drinking. Kynna wanted some too. I took two steps towards the woman and switched my daughter into my other arm, so that she was positioned to take advantage of the human's free side. This human had enough blood for two babies. It would not be enough for grown vampires to share, but babies this small could share.

The human was sagging now, slumping over under the weight of Jace and the loss of blood. She was small and Jace weighed forty pounds, so she would have had trouble holding him for long under normal conditions. She was probably only still standing thanks to Kynna, who was making contact with her in three places. Kynna's mouth and teeth were biting into her neck, sucking her blood, while one hand was on her chin and the other was resting on her shoulder. And I could feel that my daughter was using her power.

Kynna levitates. It started a year before she hatched, when her host Vinutha slipped and fell, but forgot to hit the ground. Vinutha missed the ground every time she fell that year and since she enjoyed levitating so much, she started falling on purpose. It scared Charlotte and me at first, because we worried that it might not work and our host might actually make contact with the ground and hurt herself the next time, because it was not something Vinutha could control; it just happened and it happened because of an unhatched vampire who was not even aware of the outside world yet.

But our worries were for naught, because Vinutha never did hit the ground again. And now that she was hatched, touching the ground was something Kynna was not very good at. Whenever Charlotte and I set her down, she would just float there slightly above floor-level. And when she sat in the stroller, she floated millimeters above her seat, which was why I always made sure to buckle her in with the five-point harness: I worried that she might rise up higher and float away.

When Kynna was being held, her power subconsciously turned off and she felt like any other vampire baby. But her power would sporadically turn on sometimes, so I had experienced what it was like to hold someone who was levitating. It was like holding down a giant helium balloon. She did not feel like she weighed her usual thirty pounds, but more like she weighed negative thirty pounds. That is what she felt like now and some of that weightlessness was likely transferred to her victim, through those three points of contact, enabling the dying human to stay precariously balanced on her two dead feet.

I shifted my hold on Kynna, so that I was now holding her from around the waist and under the armpits. She kept her mouth firmly in place while I used my free hand to reach out and wrap my arm around said human in anticipation of the collapse that was imminent now. I moved us towards the trees as I grabbed Jace around the middle too, with the same arm I was using to hold Kynna. It took me another three seconds and another three pulls on the human, but I managed to drag her to the tree-line before Jace and Kynna even finished their meal.

As soon as my babies unlatched their mouths, Charlotte was there taking the cumbersome corpse away and leaving me free to wrap both arms around the kids. I shifted one into each arm, before depositing them back into the stroller. Their faces were bloodied, so I used their bibs and the bottle of water I had in the cup holder of the stroller to clean them. They had each spilled a few drops down their fronts, but luckily the bibs had caught most of it. When I was done, I tucked the soiled bibs into the diaper bag in the basket underneath and began to slowly push towards the parking lot again. Alice said we would need a bag full of diapers, and yet again, she was right, because it was perfect for stashing soiled bibs in.

Charlotte would dispose of the body, just like we had planned. She would have to tear open the neck, in order to disguise the bite marks. Maybe the police would find some evidence of her presence, but her handprints would not match mine and she would not be seen in the area. The babies and I would be out of the area long before the faulty chip was noticed and the police were called. They would not be able to link us to the crime.

And so trusting my wife to dispose of the evidence, I calmly took my well-fed hatchlings back to our car in the parking lot. I strapped each child into a safety-seat, just as a human would, again using two of Alice's ridiculous props. Then I collapsed the bright-red stroller and stored it in the trunk with the diaper bag. I drove home, back to our Texas ranch house. When I got there, I burned the bloodied bibs and everything else we were wearing, to destroy any potential evidence.

Charlotte came home shortly after me and we burned her clothes too. The fire was out and the smoke had cleared before the Texas Rangers showed up asking if anyone had seen the cougar attack in the park that day.

"I got a report of a tall blond man in the park with two blond babies, about one year old each. Your family matches that description, so I need to know if you were in the area today," the ranger said. There was only one park in left in Houston, so he did not have to elaborate on which park.

The tall man who passed by before our victim must have told the ranger about seeing us.

"Yes, we were there. Did something happen officer?" I asked concerned.

"Yeah, there was an animal attack. Did you see any animals out along the East Trail?" he asked.

"No sir. There was nothing there," I answered.

"And just what were you doing out there this evening?"

"Taking the kids for a stroll. The wife needed some me time," I replied.

My answers seemed genuine enough, but he asked me about animals in the park three more ways, before concluding that I had not seen anything. He looked like he wanted to question the babies for a minute, but it was late and human babies would be in bed by now. Plus, they could not talk, so there was nothing he could gain from questioning them, unless of course Kynna and Jace had guilty expressions on their faces. But then the ranger never did ask to question them. He just thanked me for my time, turned, and left.

And that is how we got away with murder. We would have to build a pen in the basement and start keeping a fresh food supply, so that the rangers would not start to notice our family's association with the animal attacks. It would mean extracting the tracking chips and disposing of them, but it could be done. Or maybe we could get the chips out lawed in Texas; if a few dozen people were found electrocuted by their chips, the humans would have to stop using them.


	60. Book4 Carlisle ch3

Carlisle POV:

"Don't worry so much Mom, we'll be fine," Aiden said as his mother kissed him for the thirty-sixth time.

"Yeah, it's not like Grandpa Vladimir is gonna hold us down and force us to drink people. We're just gonna see his castle in Romania. It's gonna be super cool!" Adriel exclaimed.

Esme and I were going on an expedition to find a nomad family and Aiden and Adriel were going with Vladimir to see his current castle and the remains of the original Romanian castle. It would be educational for them to see a part of our history and Vladimir was a good friend now. He has watched the kids many times for shorter durations, but this would be the first time he would be watching them on his turf and the first time that he would have them for more than a day.

"That's what we're worried about: no jumping off the turrets," I ordered, hugging my son again.

"Vladimir, you have to keep a sharp eye on Adriel. He thinks he can defy gravity, but he's just a boy," Esme fretted needlessly. Okay, maybe not needlessly, because Adriel has been known to get into trouble, especially if tall cliffs were involved. The mountains of Romania were just the sort of place my son could really exercise his power and that is what had us worried.

"Don't worry. I haven't fed the boys dessert once," Vladimir proclaimed. "And I won't even offer it until their adults."

"We trust you," I told my friend and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Don't forget to feed them," Esme reminded Vladimir.

"There are plenty of animals running around the mountains," Vladimir replied.

And so with one last round of hugs and kisses, Esme and I watched Vladimir run off with our boys. We double checked our own blood supplies and the four carseats in the extended SUV and we were off. Two carseats were for the children of the nomads we were looking for and the other two were already filled with Cabar and Ramsey, our adopted children. They were waiting patiently with their wide red eyes for the adventure we had promised them to start. They did not talk yet, because they were only a year old, but they understood everything we said.

Everything was set, so the four of us drove off into the forest, singing children's songs all the way. This was our first family trip with our new babies and it was an important one, because we had a mission. Our new government had been getting reports that there was a nomad pair living in one of the national parks in Canada with a couple of hatchlings. The war with the Volturi had ended barely a hundred years ago and the oldest set of hatchlings was only one and a half years old. It was too soon for the world to be crawling with demonic spawn.

Six vampires outside our family implanted hosts on the same day as Cabar and Ramsey were implanted, but all those hatchlings were accounted for. It was possible for a nomadic couple to have heard about the eggs and then just happened to disgorge eggs soon after and implant them. If that was the case, there could indeed be a mated pair out there in the woods somewhere with a fresh set of hatchlings that we did not know about. And they were free to do so, because there was no law that said vampire births or human implantations had to be reported. We had no birth certificates, although perhaps we should. But humans had gotten several reports of homeless people living in the woods with a set of twin babies, and that was a problem.

That is how we knew where to go: Esme and I have been monitoring the Royal Mounted Police's internal communication. It was illegal to be homeless with your children. If you had children and nowhere to live, the government either took your children away or gave you somewhere to live. So when the mounties got the report of homeless people with children, their job was to find them, bring them in for questioning, and possibly refer them over to social services. If it was a repeat offender, the children would be taken away and the parents might even be charge with neglect, depending on the condition of the children.

But when the mounties went out to where the family had been spotted, they were nowhere to be found. This pattern had happened half a dozen times, all of which were in this park. Obviously the nomads had heard the humans coming a mile away, packed up their hatchlings, and took off into the woods. They could keep up the pattern indefinitely, but it would arouse human suspicion and there was always a chance they could get caught, which was not safe for the hatchlings. Not to mention that the hatchlings were out in the cold, which was dangerous for them and we had no clue if these new parents knew how to take care of a baby. Did they even know how often and how much to feed them?

If these nomads knew how to implant eggs and retrieve their children back again at the end of the implantation, then it was a distinct possibility that they had visited our island and learned the proper procedures for hatchling care. They could be fine out there in the woods with ample blood supplies and a heater for those cold nights. With a tent and a generator they could have everything they need. Or they could be grossly underprepared and hours away from getting caught by the humans. Either way, Esme and I were going to find out.

We could have left Ramsey and Cabar at home and gone on our mission without them. There are plenty of people who would watch them for us, but they were part of the plan. Esme and I were not heading into the woods as the absolute rulers of vampiric society. We were going as a parental envoy from our government to make sure they were okay and warn them of the human problem. Having the babies with us would show that we were knowledgeable, friendly, and just wanted to help. Alice saw the nomads being much more receptive to a couple of fellow parents than to childless strangers, so Cabar and Ramsey were going with us.

It was a long drive and the babies got bored long before we arrived. Esme and I took turns sitting in the backseat and entertaining them while the other one drove. We had the map Alice had sent with information on where they were, as well as information on where they would be when we find them. We also had the locations of all the sightings of them that the humans had in their file. We continued on the small winding forest roads for hours, before turning off onto a dirt path and going a few hours more.

Finally I recognized the place where we were to stop. I would have pulled over, but the path was so narrow that there was nowhere to pull over at. I just stopped the car right there in the middle of the path and Esme got out with the babies. First we pulled out their thick parkas, to ward off the chill in the air, with a large bib on top, to protect their clothes. Then we got out a couple of units of blood for lunch. Cabar and Ramsey were messy eaters, because they were so young, and they both mangled their sippy cups while they drank. Ramsey's cup started leaking and the aroma of warm strawberry-nut blood wafted through the air.

The blood was warmed up with our portable blood warmer, which was plugged into the car. Strawberry-nut was what Allison was calling her latest flavor of synthetic blood, because it had both the sweet flavor of Classics and the nutty flavor of the Sudanese. She and the rest of the kids had been learning about human foods in the homeschool classes Emmett ran; she did not quite understand what strawberry and nuts really tasted like, but it was a close enough of an approximation, so the name stuck.

I heard the babies first. One was making a whining, hungry sound and the other one let out sort of a happy coo. Ramsey and Cabar were making baby sounds too and combined with the smell of the blood, they had to know where we were. Just to make sure I said, "Careful now Ramsey, you're making a mess all over yourself."

"We have spare clothes in the car. We can change him," Esme said, playing along. Most of the blood was going on the bib and then dripping on the ground, so his jacket and underlying clothes probably would not need changing.

We could see them now, peaking through the leaves about ten feet on our left side. "Hello there. We have extra blood if you'd like some," Esme said, nodding her head towards the opened hatch of the car, where two additional units of blood were warming up.

"Thank you," the male nomad replied, stepping closer. I recognized him as one of the nomads who had visited our island in the first days after our victory over the Volturi. His name was Dylan and his mate was Savanna. They were locals.

"How does it work?" the female nomad, Savanna, asked.

"Well we have these packets of blood and we just put them in this electric device and turn it on. Kind of like a microwave," Esme answered, stepping towards the car with Cabar to prepare the blood.

"We have plenty to share. Esme can make you a couple of cups and we can chat while the children drink," I offered.

"Where'd you get those babies?" Dylan asked. He was still skeptical and holding the family back from fully stepping into the clearing with us.

"We adopted them. Their eggs belonged to the Egyptians, Tia and Benjamin. The Volturi killed them during the war," I answered. Ramsey and Cabar did not look anything like me and Esme, so it was clear that they were adopted.

"This here is Cabar and that's Ramsey," Esme added, nodding towards the children, but continuing to prepare the sippy cups.

"We never met them," Dylan said.

"They were wonderful people," Esme replied.

"Listen, all we want to do is make sure you have enough blood for the babies and warn you that the humans are still out looking for you," I said with a warm, friendly smile.

"We already eluded them," Dylan replied.

"Yes, but they think you have human babies, so they aren't going to stop looking until they find you," Esme said holding out the two freshly made cups with her one free hand.

Dylan stepped forward and took both cups. He gave one to Savanna, who passed it along to the female hatchling she carried. The baby sighed happily and bit right through the metal nozzle. Dylan promptly gave the other cup to the baby girl in his own arms, who did the same with it. Both babies were absolutely covered in blood by the time they finished guzzling down their cups.

"Don't worry, we've got more," Esme said, reaching back into the car and setting another two pouches to warm up.

"It takes a while, but eventually they'll learn not to bite through the cups," I said.

"And we've got extra clothes in here, if you want to change them later," Esme added.

"Thanks, we'd like that," Savanna said.

"We've been trying to teach them to bite harder to tear through the flesh," Dylan said.

"What have you been feeding them?" I asked calmly, but anticipating an answer I did not want to hear.

"Oh we had a dozen humans captured and bound in a cave nearby, but that's running low, so we'll have to go out again soon," Savanna replied.

"That must be why the humans have been on such high alert around here. You'll have to at least rotate through where you stay," I said and Dylan nodded.

"How old are they?" Esme asked.

"Eight days," Savanna answered. "Yours?"

"A year. They were in the second batch we implanted on our island," Esme answered. "And what are their names?"

"Sapphire and Shiloh," Savanna answered, just as a light sprinkle started coming down.

I pulled the hood of Ramsey's jacket down over his face and asked, "Do you have jackets for your girls?" Esme did the same with Cabar's jacket.

"Um no…" Savanna replied.

"Do we need them?" Dylan asked as Esme handed him two extra pink coats. They were the thick down durable kind, in case this meeting turned sour and this was all these people would take from us.

"Thanks," Savanna said, putting the jacket on her hatchling and nodding for Dylan to do the same with his.

"Well yes. I know it's been warm and dry this last week, but we're in for colder wetter weather. You know the babies need to be kept warm and being kept dry helps too," I said with my authoritarian voice, trying to convey how serious this was that they listen to me.

"Do you have a tent that we could go back to and talk about this more? The rain is picking up," Esme said, packing away the blood and cups in the back of the SUV.

"No, not really. We have the cave where we keep the humans, but that is starting to smell and reeks of blood," Dylan answered.

"Well let's just get in the car for now. There's a lodge not too far up the road. We could get a cabin if you'd like," I said while Esme fastened Cabar and Ramsey into the rear two carseats, before sitting down between them.

"Alright, but just for a few hours," Dylan replied.

"How do you work these things?" Savanna asked.

Esme instructed Savanna in the art of strapping a child into a carseat and soon had Savanna's hatchling ready to go. Then Savanna strapped in Dylan's hatchling too. It took her a few tries, because Sapphire was wiggling around and trying to get a good view of what was going on.

"There, I did it," Savanna said triumphantly.

"Perfect. Now just watch them and make sure they don't tear off the straps. We've had them changed out, so they're a special blend of polymer and will hold longer, but they can still break them, especially with their teeth," Esme said.

"Hop in," I said to Dylan, getting into the driver's seat myself.

Once Dylan and Savanna were in, I drove us a short distance to a lodge, ordered us a cabin, and continued on to our remote destination. And all the while, Esme was chatting to Savanna about bathing the babies to wash the blood off. When we stopped, we showed Dylan and Savanna how to get the babies back out of the carseats and remove the seats from the car.

We each grabbed a baby at first, but once Esme had the water going I handed Ramsey over. Savanna and Dylan added Shiloh and Sapphire, who as it turns out had never had a proper bath before, to the tub full of warm soapy water. The babies laughed and splashed and Esme explained the finer points of vampire bathing. They did not need to be washed every day; just whenever they got dirty, which at this age, was about twice a day.

While the others were busy in the bathroom, I retrieved our supplies from the car and set up the cabin. First off was the cooler of blood, the box of spare sippy cups, and the portable blood warmer. Then I went for the diaper bag of spare clothes, the stroller, and the playpen. I set up both the stroller and playpen, mostly so that the nomads could see what we used them for, and then I went for the dirty laundry. There was a washer and dryer in the kitchen of this unit, so I started it up and added the bibs Cabar and Ramsey had spoiled on our long drive.

Finally I went to the bathroom and announced, "I'm starting a load of wash before the blood sets in. Anyone got anything to add?" I scooped up the pile of clothes that had belonged to Ramsey and Cabar and waited for Dylan and Savanna to do the same. Dylan did, although he seemed a bit reluctant. They probably did not have other clothes for their babies.

"Oh honey, I got a few drops on my jacket, can you wash it too?" Esme asked, clearly trying to encourage the nomads to wash their clothing as well. They were filthy. Come to think of it, they would just plain need new clothes.

"Sure can. Would anyone like anything else washed? There's room," I offered.

The nomads declined, probably because they only had the clothes on their backs, so I continued on with the laundry. Once that was going, I went to the diaper bag and neatly laid out all the baby clothes we had with us on the dresser. It was mostly new baby girl clothes in the sizes Alice said the nomads would need, but there was one outfit for Cabar and another for Ramsey. Cabar and Sapphire were closest in size, but Ramsey was a size bigger and Shiloh a size smaller.

Finally I retrieved the backpack from the car. It had one change of male and female clothing, each, along with some personal items, like soap and a blanket. Esme had packed it to look like it was our own things, so everything was opened and looked used, but really we were hoping to leave all of these things with the nomads. It was one thing to offer them things for their babies, but nomads are a very proud people and they do not normally take handouts. So the plan was to just happen to have these things and possibly offer that they could borrow them. And just so they knew we had them, I started pulling it all out and putting it in the dresser just as Esme was leading the nomads out of the bathroom. They each had a clean naked baby wrapped in a towel and Esme had two.

"Well I'm not sure if any of Cabar's clothes will fit your girls, but it'll have to do," I said, indicating the baby clothes on the dresser.

"Oh Dylan! Did you ever see such things?" Savanna asked, clearly excited over the baby clothes.

"Help yourself. We have plenty more at home. Our daughter Alice designs them and we send out for the humans to make them, but they won't make just one of anything, so we have to get at least a dozen. The nightgown with the pink bunny is adorable the first time, but we only have one girl and there are only so many times she can wear the same pink bunny," Esme said. I took Ramsey from her and started dressing him, while she did the same with Cabar.

"Don't you have more babies in your family?" Savanna asked. She was still looking through all of the clothes, but Dylan had already grabbed the first thing and was attempting to dress Sapphire.

"Yes, we do. There are a lot more, in fact, and we do give them all these specially made clothes, but still we have plenty of extras," Esme said. "Not all babies are the same size and we have to get a dozen of each size, if we get any at all."

"Yes and Alice has worked really hard on perfecting these. They're mostly cotton, so they're soft, but they've got spider silk mixed in there, so they're strong," I said.

"And the nightgowns are made to be really easy to slip onto a wiggling newling," Esme said, using Jackson's would for a brand-new hatchling.

"It was really hard to get the old clothes on them," Savanna said. The clothes the girls had been wearing were dresses that looked to be two sizes too big and covered in drops of what smelt like human blood. Although, they were in the wash now, so maybe the smell would come out.

"The rain has stopped. Dylan, would you care to step outside with me while the women chat? I can show you how to use this stroller," I offered.

"Okay," he replied.

I grabbed the stroller and Dylan followed me out the door. We only went a hundred yards, before I stopped and showed him how to put Ramsey and Sapphire in the stroller and explained how to be careful of the plastic parts. "It really helps when blending in with the humans to have this thing. Esme and I have a dozen of them, so if you want you could have this one," I offered.

"That's nice of you to offer…" he said trailing off. "But why are you doing all of this?"

"We want to help."

"But why?"

"We have knowledge other vampires don't. We don't want to boss you around, but we want to help if we can. It was a really big transition for us when we had the first set. We learned a lot by trial and error. We were actually surprised to hear about you and Savanna, because we didn't know the implanting thing had caught on so fast," I said, hoping he would catch on and tell me why he had hidden it, but when he did not, I asked directly. "Can I ask you why you were trying to hide your children?"

He took a moment to answer. "I don't want to be part of your Guard."

"You don't have to be. You don't even have to agree with our rule, but we still would have helped you with anything you needed. We still will."

"But why? Why would you do that without wanting our loyalty?"

"Because we want to help people. We like helping people and we believe we can help people with infants."

"No one just wants to help people. You want us to take your side in the next conflict."

"We don't want there to be another conflict. We just want to create a society where we can all do whatever we want and be free. As long as we all keep the secret, it should be possible."

"That's what the Volturi said."

"Yes, but they were corrupt and power hungry. We're not. I sat back and tried to let our world sort itself out. It was only when they brought their forces to our doorstep and wouldn't back down that we did anything about it. And believe me; we had the means to do so long before the war."

"I guess. But why would you spend the effort to help me? I'm just a nomad."

"We have plenty of money, so that's not a problem. We have infinite time on our hands and if we have to be in charge, then the least we can do is use that time to make a difference; that's what my wife and I agreed on when we agreed to rule. We actually considered refusing to rule and letting someone else come forward and take charge, but we didn't want to go through the wars that would accompany a power struggle. And why not help a nomad? If the nomads will take our help, then we will give it."

"And not expect anything in return?"

"Honestly, if you take good care of little Shiloh and Sapphire, then that is all the return we want. We don't want the children getting caught by the humans."

"You aren't gonna try and force that wacky diet of yours on them?"

"No, we're not. We'll give you synthetic blood, because it's easier. Feel free to feed them whatever you want," I said. I really hoped to convert people to vegetarianism, but we had agreed that our society would have freedom of diet and that every vampire could eat whatever they wanted to. There was no way to have a democracy otherwise.

"I'll take you up on that."

"Good. There are a few other things we'd like you to take us up on as well."

"Like what?"

"Like we have a lot of advice we can give. For example, if you dip their hands in pickle juice, they'll stop biting them," I said reaching into the pocket of the stroller and retrieving a jar of pickles Esme put there when we were packing for the trip. I opened the jar and dipped each of Ramsey's hands in it. He went to lick it off, but it tasted so foul that he spit his fingers back out and proved my point. Then he proceeded to try to wash his mouth out with his own saliva and make the cutest spitting noises while doing so. He also made a mess and got venom all over himself, but even that was cute.

"That's a good one," he said, taking the jar from me and doing the same to Sapphire. "What other advice do you got?" Sapphire had a similar reaction to Ramsey, but she was not as active about it.

"Well it's critically important that they don't get too cold. If you really want to stay out in the forest, you should get a tent with a propane powered heater. But it would be easier if you just stayed in hotels until they get a bit older."

"That's not our way. We like to keep moving."

"I know, but it's hard to stay in one place without the humans noticing. That's what was so nice about our island: there were no humans so we didn't have to move when the children were little."

"But there aren't enough humans nearby."

"Well there were some. And we had the synthetic blood manufacturing plant, so that wasn't a problem for us," I said, deliberately leaving out our animal consumption to make him feel more comfortable with me.

"Do you really make enough blood to give away?"

"Yes. We're opening up a new plant where we're living now in Manitoba. It's been a lot of work, but that's mostly because we still have the plant going on our island. We've got a few nomads in the area that take care of it, but Vladimir, of the Romanian Coven, is doing most of the organizing of labor. He's the only one currently living on the island, but he wants to take some time off to see Stefan. If we can't find someone else to stay on the island for a little while, then we'll have to travel back and forth ourselves," I said, planting the seed. He and his family needed someplace to stay and we needed more vampires helping out with the blood manufacturing plant on Cullen Island.

"I noticed that none of the babies vomited after drinking that fake blood. Why is that?" Dylan asked, changing the subject.

"Do yours vomit a lot after feeding?" I asked and he nodded, "How much are you feeding them and how often?"

"As much as they want whenever they start crying," he answered. "Normally they cry two or three times a day, so we give them each a human, but they never finish it; Savanna and I drink whatever's left."

"That's too much. That's why they vomit; they have small stomachs, but they're gluttonous creatures, so they'll drink as much as they can get. We feed ours twice a day, so every twelve hours, and at this age, we only give them one pint each time. Now that changes with age and bigger babies need more than littler one. We just put a chart of it on our website, if you have internet access," I said. In this day and age, everyone, even nomads, had internet access at all times and all locations.

"That would be great. How do you know how many pints are in each human?"

"Well I don't know the answer to that one. We've only fed ours synthetic until they're older. But we have been informed from some of our allies with new babies that they can split one human between two babies and still have some left over."

"I guess they could share. They're getting better breaking open the skin on their own, but drinking out of a cup seems to require a completely different skill set."

"Well if you find out anything more, let us know and we'll post it on our website. I think you'd like some of the other nomadic couples with babies. It's a shame we don't have some sort of an event planned where we all meet up and let the babies play together. Cullen Island would be perfect for it, because it's safe and secluded."

"I guess."

"If you want, you could go with us to see Cullen Island. We have to get going in a few hours to take care of the blood plant. Vladimir is away for a few days."

"We saw the island before, when you told us about eggs and implantation."

"Yes, but there are so many more things to see on the island. We had a school for the kids and all of the walls were made out of the same thing they put in bullet proof vests, because the kids kept knocking down the walls. The floors were made out of it too and we had a playground in the front and a field for sports in the back. Our kids have outgrown the playground, but they loved it centuries ago."

"I would like to see the inside of your blood plant. I didn't get a tour before."

"Sorry about that; there's no secret, we just had way too many vampires show up at one time. If you want to go with us now, I'd be happy to show it to you."

"That'd be great."

"Now how about we go inside and see what the women folk are up to and possibly rescue Shiloh from the fashion show," I said putting Ramsey back into the stroller.

Dylan put Sapphire in the other seat and pushed the stroller inside and I followed. The women had already finished their fashion show and Esme must have convinced Savanna to take her extra clothes, because she was wearing clean clothes. The two women looked up when we came in, but remained hunched over the playpen. Shiloh was just sitting there with a happy smile on her face and playing with a plush toy, but Cabar took the momentary distraction to make her escape. She grabbed hold of the bar at the top of the side and flung herself over.

"She's like having Adriel all over again," Esme said grabbing Cabar and putting her back in the playpen.

Cabar's power was not quite defined, but she did seem to be able to manipulate the physical world around her in ways the other babies could not. Ramsey too was not fully manifesting his power yet. He did not talk, but when he put his hand out to ask for something, we felt like we had to comply, no matter what he wanted, even if it was explosives. It was only our years of living with Jasper, Ashley, and Scryan and their manipulation that allowed us to resist at all.

The four of us chatted for a few more hours, before packing the hotel up, loading everything into the car, and driving back into the park where we had found them. They agreed to go with us to Cullen Island, but they had left two living humans bound up in their cave along with other evidence of their presence, so they had a bit of cleanup to do before they could go with us.

Esme and I stayed by the car and watched all four babies, while the adults went to clean up. I would not have left my babies with them that quickly, but it seemed we had earned their trust. They were gone a little over an hour and then they were back and we all climbed back into the SUV, headed to Cullen Island this time. It took us a few hours to get there and we could not drive in all of the way, because of the Arctic Ocean, but Randall and his hatchling, Rex, were waiting with a helicopter for us. Esme had called him when we were getting close, because he was one of the nomads taking care of things in Vladimir's absence.

Randall was the type of nomad Dylan and Savanna really needed to get to know. He supported our rule and fought with us during the war, but he has always been nomadic, even when he had a host to take care of. He had implanted his egg during our second big egg implantation and was raising his new son as a single parent. His mate was killed over a thousand years ago in a scuffle with some other nomads, so there was no way this egg was from her. Two hundred years ago Randall had been having casual sex with a number of single female nomads and now he was not certain who the mother of Rex was.

More recently he had had a relationship with his own host and was raising her daughter as his own. He had even changed the girl when she came of age and she was now living in the area as a nomad. His host, however, died when his son emerged, making Randall single again.

But that was all beside the point, because he was being a good father and raising his son, while still living the nomadic lifestyle. He was helping out with the blood plant, but he and Rex were also constantly on the move. Rex was a year old and not once have the humans noticed Randall living with him in the wild. When humans did cross their paths, all they saw was a father out on a pleasant camping trip with his young son, because Randall had a tent and a heater. And they moved around every day or two, so the humans never noticed that they were living out there. Plus, when it was really cold, the pair made their way back to Cullen Island and stayed in one of the vacant apartments. He was doing it the way Dylan and Savanna needed to learn to do.

Once our helicopter landed on Cullen Island we gave the nomad family a tour, starting with the blood plant, then the school house and park, and finally all of the abandoned houses lying around. From the hybrid apartments to the Irish coven's cottage, there were a lot of empty houses on Cullen Island. All of our friends had crammed into our houses when the war first began, but we had access to humans who brought in building supplies, so by the end of the war, everyone had a home of their own. Even Vladimir and Stefan had a small castle, which was where Vladimir stayed when he ran the blood plant for us.

"You know, all of these houses are available. If you ever get tired of traveling, you could come here and stay the night. Or you could stay for a few years until the babies get older," Esme suggested when we were inside the Irish coven's cottage. It was very cozy, but spacious and opulent at the same time.

Savanna looked at Dylan, silently asking if they could, and he replied. "I think we could stay for a few nights, until Vladimir gets back. That way we can help out with the blood plant."

"That's wonderful. I'm sure you'll love it here. And when you're ready, Randall is still at the blood plant," Esme said.

"And feel free to leave anytime, just let Randall or Vladimir know and they'll fly you across in the helicopter so you don't get those babies wet," I said.

We exchanged a few more pleasantries and then Esme and I took off in the helicopter for the SUV. We switched the carseats back from the helicopter to the SUV and Esme drove the kids back to our new compound in Manitoba, while I flew the helicopter back to Cullen Island, before swimming and running back to Manitoba myself. Vladimir came back with Aiden and Adriel a few hours later, none the worse for wear and with a million stories to tell us about how cool Romania was. Dylan and Savanna ended up liking living on Cullen Island and agreed to stay on at the blood plant for a few years.

All in all the trip was a success. There was just one loose end to tie up: what to do with all of the other nomads as their babies emerge. We could not relocate them all to Cullen Island and they would resent us if we tried. We would have to come up with a solution.

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><p>Author's note: This chapter is the start of permanent facilities in large cities for nomads and their children. The seed has been planted in Carlisle's head and it will take some time to execute, but eventually there will be vampire compounds everywhere so that wherever the nomads go, there will always be somewhere safe for them away from human eyes.<p> 


	61. Book4 Rosalie ch4

Chapter 3

Twilighted Beta: RedChevy!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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><p>Rosalie's POV:<p>

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked Edward petulantly.

He had just walked into my office in Manitoba carrying a hard copy of the report he had already sent me. I do not know why he insists on printing it out and killing the poor trees every single time he turns over a report. Okay, yes, I do like reading the old fashioned way and we do recycle, but still, trees are getting rare!

"It's nothing. I'm supposed to go over those files I sent yesterday regarding the host registry," Edward replied, plastering his stupid crooked grin on his stupid face again. He always does that after reading my mind; it is his, "I know what you're thinking and my thoughts are better than yours," grin. I hate that grin.

Esme and I were in charge of all things baby-related in the new government. Right now she was tending to all of the issues that arise on the hatchling side of things. Well in between taking care of her own new adopted hatchlings she was, but she could take them with her to do that. Mostly she was going around between all of the vampires with new hatchlings and checking on them to see how they were coping with it. She would make sure the new parents knew the correct feeding interval and how much blood to give and that they had plenty of pouches of synthetic blood coming in, so that they would not have to hunt for every feeding.

And when Esme went, she took all four kids along. The days of sending the kids to human school were long over; the humans having all grown up and moved onto University now, while our kids were still in the preteen stage. The Whitlocks were in Texas and the Swan family, as they were now calling themselves, were in and out of La Push every other day visiting the hybrids and their latest spawn. So with just Adriel, Aiden, Lily, and Violet around, there were not enough kids to put together classes most of the time. Emmett still watched the kids and even put together some lesson plans when they were all here, but we were not currently organizing a school class and that meant Esme was free to take Adriel and Aiden with her on her trips.

Esme's boys were pretty good at blending in among the humans and they were a big help to her with Ramsey and Cabar; they even entertained the babies while Esme spoke with the adults. Ramsey was Tia's egg and Cabar was Benjamin's. Carlisle and Esme had decided to adopt them after being unable to find a living relative to take in the orphans. Benjamin and Tia had been so delighted when they disgorged their eggs and were so much looking forward to having a son and a daughter that Esme and Carlisle could not bear to let those eggs sit unwanted in a flow-cell now that their parents were dead.

And while Esme was out caravanning around the world, I stayed in the capitol and handled everything egg-related on this end. I did not have the luxury of going, because I have two wonderful humans to take care of. Having Megan and Robby was great; I only wish they had not grown up so fast. They were each in their mid-thirties and were off at the local university now, in the final years of their respective doctoral degrees, which meant that they were out of the house, but still within running distance.

Emmett and I made Violet and Lily run over there with us about once a day to check on them. They came home every weekend, but they were fragile and breakable and susceptible to all of the hazards that any human is subject to, except illness. Robby and Megan both suffered from incurable genetic defects, but that was all cured when we implanted them with our eggs a few years back. Now Megan's neurons would never degenerate and Robby no longer needed to get the toxic proteins filtered out of his blood. But they were growing up and turning into adults and they did not need their parents there coddling them every moment of their lives, so although we checked on them every day, we did not let them know we were there. They need some independence at this age.

The humans were away at school, Emmett watched the girls, and so that left me to help out with the government during the day. With all of the hatchings that have happened in the last few years, Esme was away a lot, which left me with a lot of work on my end. Carlisle was handling the political end of things and I had the reproductive issues.

Jasper and Alice were away, but they were busy establishing a major synthetic blood manufacturing plant in Texas, which was quickly becoming the main supplier of blood in the States. And the demand for blood was only rising every year. Hatchlings need a lot of blood and new ones, especially, occupy their parents' time so sufficiently that even the adults need synthetic blood to supplement their hunting. Not that we want them to do any hunting, or course, because that costs human lives, but the vast majority of vampires were carnivores and that was not going to change any time soon. They would never accept eating animals and there were not even enough large animals in the area to feed all of the vampires if they did.

Well that is what Carlisle and the others kept insisting. Personally, I thought we should just make all vampires eat animals and ban human consumption now that we were in charge. We should use our political and physical power to make a change for the better and civilize our species as a whole. Put on a show of force and the masses would comply and stop murdering precious innocents. I said so in the beginning, when we were first deciding what to do after the war. Well not at very first, because Emmett and I were busy making Lilac and Junior, but as soon as we got out of bed, I made my position clear.

I was shot down entirely and not just by the carnivores, but by everyone in my own family. If we tried to make them, the fledgling democracy we were putting together would have so much backlash that it would never survive, they claimed. But if we do not make them and slowly introduce synthetic blood, we can affect the change without conflict and let the people make the decision not to kill on their own. The plan was basically to get them hooked on the new flavors of synthetic blood, raise the new generation on the stuff, and in a few thousand years, vampires will stop drinking human on their own. I was against it on principle, but I lost that argument and was relegated to reproductive services.

According to Carlisle, who got most of his information from Edward, vampires did not want to accept the rule of a vegetarian coven, even as it was now, with full freedom of dietary rights. Our diet was a major strike against us as far as the lay-vampire was concerned and there were only two reasons why we were permitted to boss them around at all. First of all we had overthrown the Volturi, our previous rulers for millennia and in vampire culture, if you take out the leader, you get to take over the society. Second, we had superior numbers, because of our large coven size and an extended network of allies, as well as superior powers. We had started out with just four talented vampires in a coven of eight, but all of the kids were talented and the oldest ten were old enough to help defend us now, so it would be difficult to overthrow our coven.

The oldest ten. I cannot believe I just thought that. It should be the oldest twelve. There were twelve of them. But Violet and Adriel are older now than Carl and my Rosita were when they died, so they really were part of the oldest ten. It has been just a hundred nine years since my Rosita died; a hundred and nine long sad years. I cannot believe I lost her. She was like a shining light in this murky swamp of vampire existence that I have been forced to endure for the past millennia and a half. If it were not for Violet and Lily, I do not know how I could go on…

"A-hmmm," Edward cleared his throat. It was a stupid human gesture. Vampires have no need to clear their throats. But Edward does, because he is one of the most annoying, self-absorbed, holier-than-though, know-it-all, mind-reading…

"Can we just go over those files?" Edward asked, cutting off my internal monolog.

Okay, I admit I have had my fun with imitating humans and I may have a bit of an obsession with them, but clearing your throat was one of their more disgusting habits and I hated that sound even when I was human.

"Fine," I conceded. "What's there to go over? Are the hosts in the children's hospital not good enough for some reason?" I had not read all of his report or the explanation for why all of the humans we already had were not good enough; I had just read the first few lines this morning before getting pissed off and closing it. It was not what I wanted to hear and I could deal with it later.

The Swans were only around part-time at best, but Alice and Allison had the new blood-facility here practically running on auto-pilot, so Bella was able to keep it going during the few days a week she was here. Vladimir and a few other nomads were keeping the plant back on Cullen Island going using the same robots and automated techniques, so between the two plants, we were producing blood for all of Canada and Europe. The surviving members of the Amazonian coven, just the four of them now that Zafrina and Fernando were dead, were starting up a plant in Brazil that would hopefully supply all of South America soon. And Stefan was helping the Nigerians do the same for Africa. Asia and Australia were on their own and would be for some time, but there was nothing we could do about that unless someone came forward to take charge of opening up new plants in those areas of the world.

We were all helping to manage the blood shortage. Obviously hatchlings need synthetic blood and the rest of us can make do with animal, which was just what we were doing. Emmett and the kids had a caribou farm going now and all of us, including the kids, were on a caribou-only diet, because there were not enough carnivorous animals around here to hunt. Jasper and his kids were doing the same with a herd of cows on his ranch in Texas. Cows are hard to get in North America these days, so he was selling the left overs to the humans for a hefty price tag. So his kids were drinking cow and Alice was shipping all of the blood they were making out to the hatchlings of America. Well except Ashley, who was still on synthetic, but she has a problem with hunting and probably always will.

So all of our blood was going out to the various hatchlings, but there were so many lately that there just was not enough blood to go around and the ones furthest from blood manufacturing plants were not guaranteed to get any. For now Esme was bringing Asian and Australian hatchlings enough blood to last for the first year and they were on their own after that. That meant that the babies would be forced to drink human, like their parents; the idea of an innocent baby taking a life made my skin crawl. But then most of the nomads around here fed their hatchlings human every once in a while as a treat. Peter and Charlotte fed their babies a human about once a week, even though they were right next door to the new blood manufacturing plant. They even agreed to run the place after Alice and Jasper leave and yet they still waited less than a month before allowing their children to kill…

"Try not to think about it Rosie; there is nothing we can do about that," Edward said, interrupting my thoughts again. Stupid annoying mind-reader. And he cannot even use the excuse that all mind-readers are equally as bad, because Eliza and Masen never get on my nerves like him.

"Ahmmm," Edward cleared his throat again. I wish he would stop doing that. "I would if you would focus."

"Focus on what? You still haven't told me what your problem is," I said.

"The problem is that the nomads do not want to use dying hosts. They do not want sick ones. They do not want defective ones. They want strong, healthy hosts that can carry an egg for a hundred years without a problem," Edward replied.

"That's absurd. The hosts will be healthy once they implant," I retorted. We always use dying hosts; that is what justifies the fact that we allow them to die after only a hundred years when the average human lifespan is four times longer than that.

"I know, trust me. But I have just spent three days in conference with the nomads and that is what they are demanding. And our new government is all about freedom…" Edward trailed off.

When Edward was not in La Push running around with the enemy, he was helping Carlisle out with the government. Sometimes he attended meetings with Carlisle and all of the senators, but the rest of the time he went around meeting with the different leaders and finding out what they wanted from their government and what their current needs were. The nomads did not traditionally have a leader, but that was changing. Peter was a local nomad leader down in Texas and the rest of the nomads had their own local leaders, all of which Edward had just finished meeting with at his nomad conference. They were independent people, so mostly what they wanted from the government involved eggs, hosts, and hatchlings, because parenthood was new to our species and they needed help with the transition.

"Did you talk to Carlisle about this?" I asked skeptically. There was no way Carlisle was going to authorize the nomads to implant healthy humans.

"Yes. We cannot go around telling the other vampires what to do, just because we are in charge of keeping the peace. They have always been free to take humans at will. This is just two more humans every hundred years per mated pair, maximum. None of them want more kids anyway, so it will probably end up being two humans, period," he explained calmly.

Alright, I was wrong.

"Two humans who don't need to die when we've got a whole hospital full of dying orphans just waiting for anyone who wants them to come get them," I rebutted. We already had the system in place with the hospital and the human doctors. And it was hard to find human doctors who look the other way when vampires come in and cure the terminally ill children with eggs and then adopt the healthy kids. But then Edward had cheated and brought in his grandson White Cloud to help him with the doctor problem.

"About that: the number of vampires wanting to implant hosts is dwindling down. They have all got new hatchlings or hosts already implanted and no eggs on the way. Less than one percent of the nomads reported that they plan on implanting eggs in the next hundred years. And although we couldn't get them all egg-control blood, we did get them the liquid time-release concentrate, so I do not anticipate that there will be all that many accidents," Edward droned on.

With the shortage of synthetic blood, egg-blood was no longer a luxury we could afford. Luckily Allison had perfected a liquid concentrate version of the hormone that was the active ingredient in egg-blood. We just swallow a teaspoon of the stuff once a week after we hunt and are protected against unwanted parities until the next blood-meal. It had no flavor, but it was better than using condoms. Allison had worked really hard on it and we were all grateful that she had succeeded before the blood shortage began. And since synthetic blood was not required, she was able to make it in such large quantities that we were able to dispense it to every vampire who wanted it.

"And your point being?" I interrupted.

"My point is that the vampires do not want the hosts you have and the need for them is evaporating. Most of those humans will likely die without being implanted and on top of that we need to help a handful of nomads around the world find healthy humans to implant," he replied.

"Why can't they just get their own like they do their food?" I asked annoyed. We were helping to provide dying children, because they were the ideal hosts and difficult to come by. If they did not want them, then any human would do.

"Kidnapping and false imprisonment mostly. The nomads still agree that children are best, because they are more malleable. And they do not want to deal with human rights and letting their hosts blend in with society; they just want to grab babies and raise them in confinement until their eggs hatch and the human dies," he answered and I took a swing at him. Of course he heard what I was planning in my thoughts, so he ducked.

"I am not suggesting we allow that. I did, however, suggest that you be allowed to help them choose healthy middle-aged humans that would be conducive to carrying an egg and letting strange vampires stalk and sniff them. Give the humans aptitude and psychological tests to find out which ones would be the best candidates. Once we figure out some general guidelines, they can start picking them for themselves," he said.

We could just use White Cloud to make the future hosts suggestible, like he did with Robby, Megan, and the doctors. But there was the side effect that free-will was permanently obliterated, so our family had agreed that White Cloud and his power was only to be used in cases of absolute necessity. Plus, we did not want every vampire in the world to find out about White Cloud and harassing Nessie and Jacob on the reservation.

"So not babies?" I asked somewhat appeased, but still wishing I could get a good solid hit in.

"Not babies. It took me a long time, but I think I convinced them that humans a couple of hundred years old would work fine. You'll have to leave once every few years or so, but Emmett has got the home-front covered and it should not take long each time. Especially if you do a little research here first," he suggested.

"Fine, I'll start putting together a psychological profile for picking healthy adult hosts," I conceded.

"Excellent," he replied, but he did not leave.

"What else do you want Edward?" I asked. He wanted something, I could tell.

"I just wanted to know when was the last time you saw Robby and Megan?" he asked. He was trying not to smirk, like he knew something I did not know.

"What's happened to them?" I asked running to the door in a panic preparing to dash off to rescue my children. Was there an accident? Did Robby get run over by a car? Did Megan get raped? Did one of them start using drugs? Had Alice or Scryan seen something?

"Nothing. As far as I am aware, they are fine," he replied.

"Then why did you scare me like that?" I asked, getting mad at him for worrying me.

"Sorry, I did not mean to frighten you. I was only wondering, because of your behavior." He was smirking now. This was a personal jab at me.

"I am not trying to make light of you for any reason. I just noticed that you are a little emotional today and I was wondering if you have seen all of your children lately. I thought that if you had not seen them, it might explain your bad mood."

"Well I have seen them. Emmett and I ran out there last night with the girls. Megan and Robby were studying," I answered, showing Edward a picture in my mind of my perfect two humans doing their homework. Robby had a textbook open and was reading, while Megan was writing an essay on her laptop.

"So you were not actually in the same room as them?"

"No. We're trying to give them some space," I replied. It was Thursday. We had just seen them Sunday night when we dropped them back off at their dorm and we would see them tomorrow when we picked them up after their last class. Larissa and Nikolai were out of school and married by their age. Megan had a long-term boyfriend and Robby had just started seeing Mariam, Jasper's grandmother slash host. It was time they started acting like adults and settling down, which is hard to do if you are attached at the hip to your parents.

Mariam was already married with two kids back in her day. Her husband and oldest child died a century and a half ago, which meant she was a widow raising her toddler son on her own. Well not completely on her own, because she lived with Jasper and the rest of the Whitlocks, so she got all the help she needed. But they all live in Texas most of the time and only come up here for visits about once a month, so Robby rarely ever sees Mariam in person and they do most of their dating online and over the phone.

I had hoped that the Whitlocks would move back home and Mariam would apply to our local University, so that she and Robby could go to school together, but that had not happened. Mariam was busy with the baby and was accustomed to the idea of being a stay at home mother. In her day, women did not go to school and even if we de-brainwashed her, she still only had a sixth grade education from the nineteenth century. Everything they knew back then was wrong, so she basically had to start school from the beginning, which was why Jasper was home-schooling her. He was teaching her the basic things she needed to survive in the modern world, like robots and online dating, right now, but he was planning on starting a more formal schooling when the baby gets a little bit older.

"Rosalie, I think you should go see them in person. You are their mother; just call them up and tell them you miss them. You can make cookies or something. They will be more than happy to see you."

"I don't know…" I wanted them to become independent and I did not want to embarrass them by having their mommy show up all of the time.

"Trust me on this. I know they miss you too; I hear it in their thoughts every weekend when they are here. They did not have a mother for the first decade of their lives and now they dislike being separated from you and the family just as much as you dislike being separated from them. Things are different now and humans are children longer; take Emmett and the girls over to see them," he urged.

"But the other humans will notice that Lily and Violet don't age," I protested. That was why we had not gone to see them before; well not in the open. Robby and Megan did not notice that their sisters were still children. The other humans in the dorms, on the other hand, would notice. Megan and Robby had a two-bedroom dorm to themselves, so they had some privacy, but there were hundreds of other kids living nearby.

"Then go in the morning, at eight a.m., before the college kids wake up. You know no one wakes up in that place before noon."

"Robby and Megan do." They get up and hit the gym by nine. And then they have their first classes at eleven and they're always studying. They're great kids.

"So call them tonight and tell them you are coming over in the morning to make them breakfast."

"I don't know…"

"Rosalie, you and Emmett and driving me crazy. Just go and smell your hosts already before I call them and have them come to you," Edward threatened, looking me dead in the eyes.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me. Emmett was all moody too when I dropped Eliza and Masen off."

"Well anyone would be moody if they had to watch Eliza and Masen at the same time." Edward and Bella were awful parents whose children behaved like they were being raised by awful parents. If they were more attentive, their kids would not be so bad.

"He has no problem with doing it on Mondays. Your husband is going to snap before you do. Just start going to breakfast with your hosts on Wednesday mornings and give us all a break from your melancholy."

"You know, you're in an awfully bad mood yourself. What is this really about? Are you jealous?" I asked.

"Jealous of what?" he asked, clearly annoyed. He was jealous, otherwise my question would not have bothered him so much.

"I know you've talked to Alice. I'm sure she told you that I finally decided on a middle name for Lilac."

Emmett's egg was a boy, so we were finally getting an Emmett Junior. And I already knew hundreds of years ago that if I ever had another girl, I was going to name her Lilac. All of the other girls had flower names and after Emmett went with Violet for our youngest daughter, I just knew that the next one had to be Lilac. So as soon as I disgorged my latest egg and Alice had seen she was a girl, we all knew that she would be Lilac. I just had not decided on the middle name.

"Why did you have to go with that? You and Emmett named Lily, Rosita, and Violet after you, and I did not say anything. And I even get why you are naming your son after Emmett. But with this one, I do not get it," Edward whined. "Why?"

"I like the name. And it's another flower name," I replied shrugging. Besides, he was my brother. My human brothers did not have names that could be used for girls, but my vampire brother did.

"He's not your only vampire brother," he said petulantly. Okay, so Edward was part of the family too, but long ago Emmett and I agreed that we would call Edward his brother, leaving me with just the one.

"And what, you wanted me to name her Edwina, after you? Sorry Eddy, but you've already got a junior. Just because no one ever calls him Edward…" I started to say, but he cut me off.

"That is not the point. I just do not see why you had to name her after him. And he does already have a junior; Jackson."

"Jasmine is a completely different name than Jackson. Besides, when Jasper came back from the past we all found out that Mariam's last name was Jackson before she got married, which is where the name really came from; it was his family's name and Alice just didn't know that was why she was naming her son it. She sees herself doing something and she does it and can only guess at why. Just like when she named Ashley after Jasper's mother and didn't know it."

"Mariam said she named Jasper's mother after her great granddaughter."

"Whatever. Jasper's mother came first in time."

Edward huffed and looked like he was going to say something a couple of times, but then he stopped himself and started over. Finally he said, "I just wish you wouldn't name her after him. He already has six kids."

"And two are named after humans. Two are named after Alice. And two are named after his relatives. None of them are named after him and like I said, I like the name Jasmine. But this isn't about that, is it? It's about your jealousy over Jasper. He's my favorite brother and you're jealous."

Jasper was a good man and had turned out to be a very good brother to me, so why would I not name my daughter after him? His first born niece had been named Jasmine and the name meant a lot to him; he could not have his first niece back to be part of his life, but he could have his newest niece named after him too. Jasmine was a good name and it was just the middle name, so it was not even that big of a deal.

"No," he lied.

I was about to brush him off and tell him to go away and let me do my job already, when I finally realized what this was really about. "You're mad about our will, aren't you? Emmett and I decided to leave our kids to the Whitlocks and you can't handle it."

Now that the family was split up and traveling all over the globe, Carlisle had decided that we all needed wills. No one cared about property, but it was important to decide who would take our kids if something happened to us. That fact was made all the more apparent by Ramsey and Cabar; they were orphaned by Benjamin and Tia, who had never left instructions for who should take them in the advent of their deaths. And now they were gone and Esme and Carlisle were the only ones left alive who would take them. We did not want that to happen to our children, so we had each made out a will.

Carlisle and Esme left their four children to me and Emmett. Aiden was the same age as Lily. Violet was the same age as Adriel. And Ramsey and Cabar were only a hundred years older than Emmett Junior and Lilac, so all of our kids were similar ages and the choice made sense. We would not be able to handle all eight kids right now, because we had the humans and were expecting hatchlings soon, but in two hundred years we could do it. And if something did happen in that period of time, Vladimir agreed that he would move in with us and help out with the kids. He was single and had never had kids before, so he was not comfortable taking them on his own right now, but he was already a frequent baby sitter over at the Cullen house. He was old and lonely, so he was basically taking on the role of grandfather.

Alice and Jasper left their six children to his brother Peter and his wife Charlotte. That was a lot of kids to leave to a couple who barely had hatchlings, especially a carnivorous family. Ashley would never be able to eat anything alive, but the other five probably would if given the choice. All of them, except for Allison, already had had human. Scryan and Jackson both slipped with the convicts back on Cullen Island and Kair and Kare did the same back in their own time. Well they were still babies and traveling through their wormholes to human infested areas by themselves, so accidents were bound to happen, but still, they were on a vegetarian diet now and it was very unlikely that would remain the case if Alice and Jasper died and left them to Peter and Charlotte to raise. So we were all a little upset about the choice, but it was their choice. Alice, and especially Jasper, were of the opinion that carnivorous and vegetarian vampires could learn to live together in peace and harmony without discrimination. They wanted to set an example and not discriminate based on diet and Jasper trusted his brother with his children. They insisted that they would not base important decisions, like where their children would go if they died, on little things like whether or not someone eats sentient beings on a regular basis. They were also the brains behind Carlisle's freedom of diet policies, which I was upset about, but I could not possibly hold it against them; not with Jasper, Ashley, and Scryan on their side influencing me to let it go.

Edward and Bella had chosen me and Emmett to take their kids. Both of their kids wanted to be given to the Whitlocks, but Edward seems to be having a fit of prejudice lately, so he vetoed that idea. He did not want to give them to Carlisle and Esme for the same reason Emmett and I had decided against it. Nessie could not take vampires on the reservation full-time. They were allowed to visit La Push and stay in Forks, but Eliza and Masen could never live permanently with members of another species. And that is why he and Bella had agreed to give them to me and Emmett.

"No," he lied again. I eyed him speculatively. "But why? Even if you did not want me and Bella to have them, why didn't you leave them to Esme and Carlisle? You know they would love to have them and with only four kids, they are in a much better position to take them."

So this _was_ what his bad mood was about. He could have just said so from the beginning.

"You know why. Carlisle is busy with the government and will be for a very long time; at least until Lily and Violet grow up. Esme is too. She takes those kids all around the world with her, but she won't be able to do that if she has another four. It's the same reason you're giving your kids to me and Emmett instead of them."

"If something happened to you and Emmett, she'd stop and take care of your kids first."

"Well Emmett and I talked about it and we don't want to put her or Carlisle in that position. Again, same as you," I said getting exasperated.

Jasper and Alice will be able to handle four more kids. They only have six and I have seen Jasper handle twelve single handedly. Last time he was here he had a set of one hundred year old twins and a set of three hundred year old twins show up at the same time along with his usual four kids. And Peter and Charlotte were visiting us too and had left their two kids over there for a senate meeting. And the rest of us all had to attend the same meeting, so that was another eight kids left over at the Whitlock house. If Alice and Jasper can handle eighteen kids for twenty-four hours without a problem, I think they can take care of ten. Or twelve, depending on how many sets of Kair and Kares they have.

Edward was just going to have to learn to deal with the fact that no one trusted him with their children. He and Bella clearly did not want anymore; they were the only couple in the family not having hatchlings after the war.

"Is that what you think? Just because we do not want any more kids of our own that we would not take your kids?" Edward asked.

"And what if you did? What if our kids turned into a bunch of spoiled brats like yours?" I asked.

Edward has never been on the same page as the rest of the family. Whatever we are doing, he has to do something else. When we were all being young couples, he was being single. When he finally found someone, he had to choose a human. Then he had a hybrid child, which none of the rest of us could do. Then he and Bella were practically forced into having Masen and Eliza, because they already had the eggs. They were finally forced to be on the same page as the rest of us, and what do they do? They turn into half-assed parents with spoiled brats for kids.

"Bella and I tried," he replied to my thoughts, not my words, like the annoying mind-reader he is. Yeah right, they tried. Nessie turned out fine, so I know they could have done better.

"You know, as much as you have against Jasper, he has always been right with the family on everything. He struggled at first, but he stayed and he did and he didn't mope around about it either. And more than any of us, he has embraced parenthood. He's good at it and you're not and that's why you're jealous," I concluded.

I must have been right, because Edward started huffing again and was about to say something three times before he finally said, "Fine. Just go smell your humans today and I will go."

"Fine, I will. And I'll make cookies too," I replied flippantly. I was right and Edward was jealous.

And with that, Edward huffed out of my office, leaving me to work on finding the nomads suitable hosts.


	62. Book4 Emmett ch5

Emmett's POV:

"Papa?" "Daddy?" they asked as I approached the door.

I opened my front door to find a set of twins with short curly blond hair playing in the pouring rain. They almost looked like two drowned rats, only they were laughing and had giant smiles on their faces. They were small, again, just like they had been every day this week. One stood up and tried to take a step towards me and I had to run at top speed and dive into the mud to catch her before she fell. Great, they were just learning to walk, again. They were probably between twenty and thirty years old.

Kair and Kare have been turning up around our compound for a while now. They were always preteens at first and then there was a period of time when they were always seven hundred years old, but lately it has been the babies who show up. For the past fifty years, not one instance of them has been over four hundred years old and it seemed like they just kept getting younger and younger. In the past twenty years, they have all been under two hundred.

I was mad at Jasper's twins for a long time for tampering with Robby and Megan's minds. My humans were never the same; not even after a hundred years. But Kair and Kare were younger now and they have not known what they did for a long time. It was hard to blame babies for a mistake they would make over a thousand years in their future and I have come to realize that they are mostly good kids. It is just that when they mess up, they mess up big. I am pretty sure their mistakes get multiplied due to the time-traveling and the fact that there are two of them. And it was hard to stay mad at such adorable babies.

"Daddy should be here soon," I said scooping the second baby into my other arm and taking them inside. "But you shouldn't play in the rain."

"Rain!" one of the babies exclaimed, patting my wet face.

"Very good, now just stay put in your nice playpen until your daddy gets here, alright?" I asked the filthy children as I set them down in the playpen in the corner.

It is a testament to how often I have captured these two lately that we have a playpen set up in our living room just for them. It was not a normal playpen, but one of Peter's latest models. He was constructing baby furniture out of metal alloys, to produce a sturdy base, and spider web fabrics. The material was sort of rubbery and ugly, but it held against baby monsters far better than anything else he tried so far. These things were actually in high demand, so Jasper said that I should consider myself lucky that he brought me one. Yeah, I will consider myself lucky if he cleans up the mess.

"Lily, Violet!" I called.

"Yes Dad?" Lily asked, running down the stairs with her sister behind her.

"The twins showed up again. Watch them for me," I requested. "I'm going to shower." I was covered in mud.

"Sure thing Dad," Lily replied going over to the playpen and speaking in baby talk. "Did someone make a big mess of themselves? Yes they did. Let's get you cleaned up."

"Dad said to watch them, not to clean them," Violet said.

I turned on the shower and I could still hear the girls arguing while I washed.

"You want to just leave them covered in filth then?" Lily asked.

"No, but we don't have enough people here right now to tackle that job. It's _two_ babies _and_ a playpen that gotta be cleaned," Violet replied.

"Yeah, well I'll clean the babies and you get the playpen."

"You can't clean two babies by yourself."

"Daddy!" That last one must have been one of the twins.

"Yes Kair, Daddy is coming very soon. And I've seen Jackson clean both of them by himself."

"Yeah right."

"Yeah, that is right. He says he finds them rolling around with the cows every other day when he's working on the ranch. They stink pretty bad after that."

"No way. The cows would run."

"Nope. White Cloud touched all the cows. Jackson said it made them even stupider than before, but they stay put nicely."

"Whatever."

"So are you gonna help me clean them or not?"

"Not."

"Come on: it's good practice. We can help Mom and Dad out with Lilac and Mett when they get here."

Mett was Emmett Junior's nickname.

"Fine, I'll help."

"Papa!"

"Yes Kare, Papa's coming," Lily said. How she knew which baby was which was beyond me, because they are identical.

I finished my shower and put on clean clothes and all the while I could hear my girls debating back and forth on how to clean mud-covered monsters without getting dirty themselves. They eventually decided to change into clothes they did not want any more before starting. And since one of them was needed to watch the babies, they had to change one at a time. They just barely managed to strip the twins and get them in the tub when I joined them. Together we cleaned all of the mud off of them and changed them into spare clothes Alice had left here yesterday. She claims she cannot see when or where they are coming, but she always manages to leave spare clothes the right size exactly when they are needed.

"Knock knock," Jasper said, arriving at our front door just as we were finishing.

"Daddy!" "Papa!" the babies cried out.

"Kair, Kare, what are you two munchkins doing here?" Jasper asked, walking towards Lily to pick up one of them.

"No, we just cleaned them. You need to clean the playpen before you take them," I said pointing at the mud-covered playpen. "And you need to teach them not to play in the mud. Or at the very least, to only do it outside _your_ house."

"Thanks Emmett. I'll clean it," Jasper said, giving each of the babies a kiss, before heading to our cupboard full of cleaning supplies.

Violet and Lily sat down in the living room with one of the twins on each of their laps while we waited.

"And where are Robby, Mariam, and Squirt?" I asked.

Jasper was supposed to be bringing his humans over to play with mine. Robby was married to Mariam and has lived with the Whitlocks in Texas for most of the last ninety years. They had half a dozen human children together, but they were all grown and out of the house, so it was just the three hosts that still lived on the Whitlock ranch. But Mett would be here within the year, so Robby was moving back in with me and Rosie. Mariam was coming too, but Squirt was staying with Jasper. Squirt was Mariam's son from her first marriage and the host of Jasper's other twin. His real name was Justin, but everyone always called him Squirt.

Megan was upstairs sleeping, because carrying Lilac's egg took a lot of effort for such a tiny woman. She had never married, although she had moved out and had two kids. But her kids were grown and she broke up with her baby's daddy, so she moved back home about five years ago. Besides, the time was getting close and she would have to move home soon anyway.

"They're riding their scooters over. I ran ahead," Jasper said cleaning the playpen.

"You left them alone? What if they topple off?" I asked concerned. They were each very large with egg.

"They won't; Alice and Scryan both checked for me. And that reminds me: your Robby is a pervert."

"Did you try suggesting to him that he's not?" I asked, throwing something that he had said to me years ago back at him.

"Yeah, I did. He's not so suggestible anymore; it seems to be wearing off."

"That's great!"

"Well it might not be so great. I think you messed up and he really goes the other way."

There were kids in the room, so he was trying to speak cryptically, but I knew he was talking about Robby's sexuality. We could never quite figure out if he was gay or straight and neither could he, because of a side effect of White Cloud's mind-tampering. Robby had had crushes on both men and women and dated a boy in high school, before finally settling on a relationship with Mariam, Jasper's grandmother and host. Rosie and I thought it was a good match and the pair have been together for almost a century now, so it could not be that bad.

"They have six kids together. They're happy," I said.

"Yeah, but you didn't see what I caught them doing last week. She's my _grandmother_; I think I'm going to be scarred for life now," he replied, continuing to clean.

"Why'd you look?"

"I didn't look with my eyes. But I could _see_ what they were doing with my empathy."

"Why'd you get close to them if you knew they were doing stuff?"

"Because Kair and Kare were in the house. I heard them stair bowling and I had to rescue them."

"How is it that your kids always think rolling themselves up into balls and throwing themselves down the stairs is fun?"

"They saw Jackson doing it," he revealed. "It's not his fault though, because he didn't show them. They went back in time until he was a baby and saw him, through their wormhole, stair bowling. But that's not the point. The point is what my grandmother does to your son."

"Okay, so they're a little kinky. They're grown adults," I said brushing him off.

"Yeah, but I think he misses being with men," he said hinting at something.

I did not want to know the details of my son's love life and it was too late to do anything about it now. Robby had less than a year left to live before Mett's emergence and Mariam did not have much time after that. It was too late for a divorce, even if they wanted one, which they did not as far as I could tell. And from Jasper's story it seemed like they had worked it out on their own.

We could hear the roar of the motors on the scooters and the beating of hearts, so we broke off our conversation. Since Jasper was done cleaning the playpen, he put the cleaning supplies away while I went to the door to greet my son. Robby had grown older, but thanks to the splicing in his genetic background, he still looked like he was twenty-something. Mariam and Squirt, on the other hand, had no splicing in their background and had to rely on anti-aging drugs and wrinkle crèmes, which could only do so much to retard the aging process.

Mariam had not even started her regiment until she was already in her twenties and now she looked old. Not as old as she would have if left in her own time, but middle aged for sure. Squirt was not quite at that middle aged stage, but his hair was greying and he had a few wrinkles, making him look older than Robby. Mariam and Squirt had been implanted first, but the twins were both premature, so their parasitisms would last a few extra years to make up the difference. The babies took two hundred years from conception to emergence, whether their eggs came early or not.

I gave Robby and the others a huge hug when they got off their scooters and led them into the kitchen where I had a table full of sweets laid out for them. Megan came downstairs and joined them, while Jasper took his leeches and went home. Lily and Violet went to clean up the mess we had made in the bathroom and then change. I sat and chatted with my humans. I sure have missed Robby, even though I see him every other week. He was up here with Jasper once a month and Rosie and I ran down there to see him once a month, but it was not enough.

Mariam was telling us about her latest wormhole adventure when I heard laughing outside again. The twins seem to be attracted to wherever their father and or hosts were and with them both on the property, it was not unusual to find multiple sets running around. I excused myself to search the grounds for stray time-travelers, while Mariam finished her story. I did not miss much, because it was just the same old story with a wormhole opening up, Mariam falling in and being forced to hold her breath, until she saved herself by breaking back through to reality. It was happening to her more often as the hatchling inside her grew.

I could hear the humans chatting as I ran through the forest, following the sound of laughter, until I found them. There was a stream running through this part of the property and it made a little waterfall as it ran over a large boulder. Only now the stream was swollen with the fresh rain water and the waterfall was gushing water down into a newly formed pond below. And in that pond was one curly haired twin. The other twin was on top of the boulder and crawled off just as I was arriving. I dashed towards her, but it was too late and she splashed into the pool below with a giggle. At least it had stopped raining.

"Alright, play time's over. I'm taking you two to Daddy," I announced, stopping at the edge of the pool. At least the water was clean and the twins were not covered in mud this time.

"Daddy?" "Papa?" they asked as they each stood up on wobbly legs and walked to me. So they were a little older this time, but they could not have been more than forty or fifty years old.

"Yes, Daddy," I said, leaning down and scooping them up.

I ran them over to the Whitlock house. Most of the older children were playing quidditch out on the field, but I ran passed them and into the house, where I found Jasper and the twins from earlier. He was combing the hair of one of them, with the other snuggled up into his side. Alright, his twins were cute.

"I found these two playing in the waterfall by my house," I said.

"They'll need baths," Jasper said standing up and putting the first set into a playpen. It was the same type as the one in my house.

"Yeah, well I already bathed the first two and I have to get back to the humans," I said handing the second set of twins over.

"Don't worry, I can handle four. Jackson will come in and help me," he replied.

"Alright. Do you think there are any more on the property? I could do a run," I suggested. It was a regular occurrence for us to take jogs around the property looking for time-travelers.

"No, two seems to be the limit."

I nodded and took off back towards my house. I heard Jasper calling Jackson and Allison in to help him as I went. They were both pretty good about helping with their sisters, but it was Jackson who seemed to have a knack for it. Lily too was better at it than Violet was. I bet Lily and Jackson have a whole house full of kids when they grow up; well if they turn out to be mates, that is. Rosie and I are pretty sure those two are mates, because they are best friends and perfect for each other.

I recognized Lily's voice first as I approached our house. "…telling me you actually believed that garbage back in your time?"

"Yes, we did. That's what we were taught. My family wasn't that religious, but still, we were taught the same as everybody else," Mariam said.

I was getting closer to the house and I slowed down so that my feet would not make slapping sounds in the rain. I wanted to hear this conversation, but if they knew I was here, they would surely change topics. I have noticed lately that Lily and Violet never talk about religion when their mom and I are present. They used to when they were little, but now they just agree with me and nod their heads and change the subject. I have asked Edward about it a few times, but he told me that I did not want to know and left it at that. But these were my kids and I did want to know.

"But you don't believe that now, right?" Megan asked. My humans never did seem to be able to pick up religion. They always agreed with me and tried to follow what I was saying, but they never remembered anything about Christianity and I often caught them slipping back into their old religions. Robby would clutch his robot pendent every time I mentioned anything religious or asked him to pray with me and Megan still took Spaghetti's name in vain when she swore. The Canadian government had let them choose from a list of religions and Megan had chosen Pastafarianism, while Robby had gone with Robotarianism, but that was over a hundred years ago and I had hoped to convert them by now.

"No, but it's nice to have a funeral. I want to know all of my family members are remembering me," Mariam replied.

"We can celebrate your life without all of that nonsense," Violet said. Not you too Violet; if there was one of my kids that believed, it would be my Violet.

"You can have one when you go sweetie," Robby said. I could just picture him grabbing his robot pendent as he said it.

"What about you Robby? Do you want a funeral?" Lily asked.

"No, not really."

"Why do you clutch that robot all the time?" Violet asked. I was right: he was holding the pendent again.

"When I touch it, it protects me from religiousness."

"But I've seen you touch it when you're praying with Dad," Lily replied.

"I pray silently for the robotic monk to keep me safe from prayer," Robby said and everyone else laughed. "That's not funny; I'm serious."

"We know you are honey. That's one of the things I love about you," Mariam said.

The kids continued on in the conversation about funerals, but it was clear that not one of them believed in God and Mariam was the only one who wanted a funeral. I guess I am not all that surprised, but I had hoped that they would have faith. Although my faith has been wavering lately, so I am not sure how I expected them to have faith when I was struggling with it myself. How could God take my Angel away from me?

Angel Rose was dead and it was not fair. She has been gone for almost two hundred years now and I miss her every moment of every day. There is a permanent piece of my mind sectioned off for missing my Ro. She was just a child; she should never have been taken from me. I should have gone in her place. She was good and pure and innocent. And she was gone. She was torn to pieces and burned. I could not even think about it without wanting to kill myself just so I could join her.

But I cannot kill myself. I have Lily and Violet to take care of and Lilac and Mett will be here soon. They need me. My humans need me too, even if they will not be with me for much longer. What kind of God would take Robby and Megan from me? They were good kids and have not lived nearly long enough. It was not fair. First Larissa and Nikolai, then Angel Rose, and now Robby and Megan. I have lost three children and I am about to lose two more. It just is not right.

I sobbed silently into the muddy ground for a few minutes, but I did not want the kids to hear me and find me like this, so I got up off of my knees and went for a run in the forest. I ran for an hour, covering the perimeter three times over, but then I heard the very distinctive giggle of time-travelers, again. Jasper had said that I would not find any more, but he was wrong, because there in the trees were another pair of Kair and Kares swinging from branch to branch.

"Come down here and I'll take you to Daddy," I said, stopping beneath the tree the twins were currently in.

They were older this time; probably between one and two hundred years old.

"Uncle?" "Papa?" the girls asked, looking down from the tree.

For whatever reason, the girls typically came at the mention of their father.

"Yes, Uncle Emmett will take you to Papa," I said.

"Uncle." "Play," they replied and took off back into the trees.

I followed them and called out, "You need to come down here so I can take you to Daddy."

"No." "Trees."

"Fine, I'm gonna tell Jasper that I saw babies in the trees. He's gonna have to come out here with the four other twins that are already at his house. Do you think he's gonna like that?" I asked, still following the girls.

They stopped immediately the moment I said Jasper's name, like they knew they would be in trouble if they continued.

"Good, now come down here," I said, coming to a stop under their tree.

I probably should have phrased that differently, because both girls suddenly let go of their tree branches and fell towards me. I had to jump to catch them both before they hit the ground, but at least they were clean and dry this time. I ran them back to Jasper's house. It turned out one set of twins, the first set, had already left him, so he just had the toddler set. They were each clinging to one of his legs as he walked around doing chores. I handed over the third set of twins and was about to go back home when Jasper stopped me.

"I know what's been bothering you: Scryan told me," he said, so I stopped and waited. "You can't expect the children to get your religion. It wasn't meant for vampires. They know Jesus was nothing more than a rogue vampire executed by the Volturi. It makes no sense that a vampire was the son of a human god. And as far as our kids can tell, nothing in that religion applies to them. Just let them find their own spirituality."

The Volturi were not shy about admitting that they were the ones who had killed Jesus and that he was a vampire. I had never quite believed it, but Jackson saw it and made a comic book out of it, which made it a lot harder to dispute. Basically anything Jackson made a comic about was considered proven fact around these parts.

Jasper lifted my mood as he said it and I almost believed everything would be alright. The kids did not believe, but they were still my kids and they needed me to be there for them and love them. And so I went back home.

Since the kids had finished their conversation and were watching a movie, I joined them and pretended like I had not heard them before. I waited until two days later when I was finally alone with Rosie to say something about it.

"Rosie?"

"Hmmm."

"What religion do you think we should teach Lilac and Mett?" I asked. Their emergence was fast approaching and I wanted to get this settled first.

"What do you mean? We'll teach them the same as the others."

"But the others don't believe. I overheard them talking the other day. Not even Violet or Lily believe."

"Not even the modified version with God being a vampire and creating the universe?" she asked.

It was Carlisle's current religious belief that God was a vampire. It was a pretty good compromise, because even I have trouble believing that a human deity made vampires. If it were the other way around, then a vampire could have made humans so that we would have something to drink. And then the part about God's son being a vampire would make sense too…

"Nope. Not even that."

"Well they've just been around Jackson and Allison too much. They're bad influences."

"I don't think that's it. Jackson is a pretty good kid and Allison has helped us a lot. Sure she has caused some trouble, but ultimately she's a good kid too."

"What's this really about Em?"

"I don't know how we can go on."

"Day by day. We'll keep busy and we'll make it."

"But we're losing Megan and Robby," I said trying not to sob.

"I know. I'll miss them so much."

"I don't want to lose them. We've already lost so many."

"But we're gonna gain Mett and Lilac out of the deal," she said squeezing my hand.

"I know."

"It'll be alright. We'll get through this."

"It's just how can I tell Mett and Lilac about God, when he took Ro from us? And he took Nikolai and Larissa and now he's taking Robby and Megan."

"Everyone has to go sometime. Nikolai, Larissa, Robby, and Megan are all human and were all dying. We prolonged their lives and we tried our best to love them. Rosita shouldn't have been taken from us, but that was a consequence of war. It won't happen again and she's looking down at us from heaven."

"That's just it: I don't think she is. I can't feel her. I miss her. I miss her every moment of every day, but I can't feel her presence. We're supposed to be able to feel her presence."

"You just have to have faith Em. She's there."

"I don't think so. I don't think there's a heaven for vampires."

"Why? You believed before."

"It just doesn't make sense," I said.

"Everyone loses someone sometime."

"It's not just that. Rosie, think about it, the whole war with the Sudanese thing. How can God exist after that?"

"Humans go to war all of the time Em."

"Not the war; the speciation thing. There was one species of human and now there are two and God did not make the Sudanese. I was here and I didn't see him make them."

"I know. They evolved."

Certain members of my species had argued that God had evolved the Sudanese so that we would have two species with which to drink from. It was some sort of reward for being the top of the food chain or something, but Rosie and I did not believe that. We did not believe that humans were meant solely for us to eat. They were people too and we were meant to share this planet.

"Exactly! They evolved and Allison was right. She has been right about everything so far."

"And you think she's right about God?"

"How can she not be?"

"Because she's just a child and only knows about science."

"Well let's make a list. Everything Allison has done for us on one side and God on the other."

"Okay."

"Allison knew she was an egg. If it weren't for that, none of us would ever have known. We wouldn't have the kids and we wouldn't've had the hosts."

"Agreed."

"And Allison gave us synthetic blood and egg-blood."

"And God? Hasn't he made our lives better? Didn't he make us vampires so that we could spend eternity together?"

"No, Carlisle did that. All God did was take Ro, Larissa, and Nikolai from us."

"You seem convinced."

"I talked to Jasper the other day."

"Oh? What did he say?"

"Not much. He told me to let it go."

"And?"

"And I realized that religion is driving a wedge between me and Lily and Violet. Those girls are lying to me to make me happy, but they're not telling me what they truly believe. I don't want to be one of those fathers who can't be reasoned with. I won't let God take them from me too!"

"You have to have faith Emmett!"  
>"Faith in what exactly?"<p>

"In God! Faith that everything will work out and our girls will come around."

"And if they don't? Would you rather isolate them from us than change? Jasper said that this is a human religion and the problem is it's just not working for our vampires. He told me to just let the girls be and it would work out."

"Isn't that what I just said? Let the girls be and they'll come around."

"No, he meant let them not believe. He thinks we should back off on the religion."

"Is that what you really want?"

"I don't know…but we need to figure this out before those two babies get here and I don't know what to tell them."

"Okay, let's try letting it be. We just won't tell them anything and let Lily and Violet have some religious space. If they come around, we go back to our faith. If not…well we'll discuss that when we get there."

"Agreed."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: This was a hard one to write, but necessary. Neither species of humans believe in Christianity anymore, so why should the vampires still hang on? Please Review!<p> 


	63. Book4 Robby ch6

Chapter 6

Robby's POV:

It burns. My whole life is burning. It hurts.

"I know Robby. It's going to be okay."

"It burns!" I screamed.

"Yes, I know. This is Daddy. I'm here for you," he said, slipping his hand into mine.

It burned even where his cold skin touched me. My forehead was burning too. Maybe he was touching my forehead...

"Robby, can you try to concentrate for me?"

"Burns."

"Robby, Mariam has come to see you. This is going to be her last visit for a while."

"Is she burning too?"

"No, not yet. She's fine; she just has to go back to Texas."

"Hurts."

"I know it does, son. But do you think you can concentrate long enough to see Mariam again?"

"Yes," I said, hoping that my wife was not burning.

"Hi Robby," she said and then my lips burned. Maybe she kissed me.

"Mariam, it burns, Mariam."

"I know Robby, but it's almost over."

"Hurts."

"It's almost over; that's why I have to go away."

"Burns."

"Come get me in Texas when this is all over. I'll be waiting for you."

"Pain. Everywhere."

"I love you Robby Hale."

"Love you too."

I think I went to sleep then, if that is what it was. It was a burning, painful sleep, where I dreamt of being burned alive. Being awake was not much different, only my dad was there again.

"Robby, we have to do the surgery now."

"Horrible burns."

"I know, but we need you to hold still so we can get my egg out of you. It's your brother's birthday."

"Is he burning too?"

"Only a little. He's very thirsty, but that will be taken care of once we get him out. We've got plenty of blood for him right here."

"Hurts."

"Good, just like that. I'm going to hold your arms and Uncle Edward has got your legs. Mommy is going to get the baby out."

"Will the burning stop then?"

"No Robby, but it will stop soon. This is just one more sign that you're almost ready."

Then my whole body was on fire. My arms and legs especially, but also my face, almost like how my mom used to cup my face to tell me she loved me.

"Mommy loves you Robby."

"Mommy?"

"Yes, I'm here."

"It hurts."

"I know it does. But you need to lie still while I cut your brother out."

"Mmhmmm."

The knife was like ice. It was freezing cold against my heated burning skin. I could see my own blood spill out of me, but there were only a few trickling streams and Mom was there to stop them. Then she was cutting deeper with her blade of ice and fire, only it looked like a scrapple with a tooth for a blade. I watched on, fascinated by what I could see inside me. I could see the egg now. It was large, pearly white, and in the middle of my intestines. Mom was pulling out and slicing open my intestines and dissecting the egg away from me. The egg was cracking already. Mom handed it over to Bella, to ohhs and ahhs as my brother hatched out of his egg.

"It's almost over Robby. You just have to hang in there a little longer."

"Torture."

"I know Robby, but I have to sew you back up. Your body will heal itself in the next day, but for now, I need to help it."

I looked down again and Mom was sewing up my intestines and stuffing them back inside me. She had a gun that left burnt flesh behind whenever she zapped me. I could smell it.

"It's a cauterizing gun. It will prevent you from bleeding out," the voice by my feet said.

Then she was pulling my skin back into place and stapling.

"Now just one more step so that you don't get infected," Mom said.

She took out some red lotion and wiped it all over me. This must have been the second time she had done this, because my skin was already brown-red and streaky. Then she wrapped my abdomen in gauze and bandages, before kissing me and saying, "Your brother is being born now; your father wants all of you kids to watch it with us.

"I'm going to let you up, but you just had major surgery, so I need you to lie still," Dad said.

"How's the baby?" Mom asked.

"Good. He's hatching; I can see the little fingers and teeth." Was that Bella?

"Here, let me take him," Dad said moving away from me.

I could not see the baby, only the backs of my Mom and Dad and Bella. I bet he is burning.

"Robby, it's going to be okay. The baby is fine; it just needs to hatch and then we can feed it. You're going to be alright tomorrow. The burning will stop when you heal. Masen is waiting to take you on your first hunting trip," Edward said.

"I want to see the baby."

"You will see the baby, just as soon as he hatches. For right now I need you to lie back down there and not aggravate your incisions."

"Yes, come on sweetie, you can do it. Hatch for Daddy," my dad said.

"Is he really gonna be that big?" my sister Megan asked. I did not even know she was in the room. Where was she? She was not burning like me, was she?

"Megan is in the corner over there," Edward said, pointing to the far side of the room where there was a chair and Megan was indeed sitting in that chair. Lily and Violet were standing silently on either side of her.

"Burns."

"I know. It does that."

"How much longer?"

"One more day. Masen said you can move into his room with him when you come to live with us."

"Why?"

"Well because he's a hundred years older now. He wants to prove to you that he has matured and that the two of you can play together again."

"No, why am I moving in with you?"

"Because you can't live with the baby and Megan; they're delicate and you might hurt them. You will be very strong soon and it will take some time to learn your own strength, so you will be doing that at my house. You'll get to see Megan and Mett again soon, I promise."

"Burns."

"I know."

"He's out!" my dad announced, pulling what looked like a two year old out of that egg. No wonder it was so large and hard to carry.

"They are supposed to look like one year olds; Mett is just a little larger than average," Edward said.

"Here honey, I have the blood ready," Mom said. She had a funny looking apparatus. It looked like a feeding tube hooked up to an IV tower that was covered in packets of blood.

Dad took the tube and said, "Mett, Daddy wants you to suck the blood, not bite on the tube. There will be plenty more blood, if only you don't bite the tube."

Then Dad inserted the tube into my baby brother's mouth and my mom turned on the blood drip.

"He's very thirsty, because you ran out of blood," Edward said.

I still had blood. I had seen it when my mother cut into me.

"Pure blood. All the blood that is in you now is tainted, vampire blood. The baby needs human, or in this case, synthetic human blood." Edward said.

"He sure is drinking a lot," Megan said from her corner.

"Yes, he'll have to the first time, to fill his tissues," Bella said.

"Normally, when they drink for the first time, they drink their host dry. But Robby is still alive with all of his blood, so Mett has to fill up on synthetic instead. It's good for babies," Bella said.

"I don't want to do this," Megan said.

"Sure, sweetie, we can go," Bella said.

"Burns."

"No, I don't want to do this at all. I don't want to be changed. I don't want my sister hooked up to feeding tubes to pump fake blood into her and all for what? So I can burn? I can't take my children with me, so I might as well save myself the pain," Megan announced.

"No, you can't mean that Megan!" Dad exclaimed, still holding the baby and the feeding tube, but turning towards Megan.

"We love you very much and it will devastate your father and me if we're forced to lose you. You can go now, but please, from the bottom of my heart, I am begging you to reconsider," Mom said.

"I'll take her and talk to her about this," Bella said, placing her hand on Megan's shoulder and leading her from the room. Violet and Lily left with them, but before they got out the door, Megan stopped and came over to me.

"I'll always love you Robby. I'll always be with you, even if I don't want this for myself. You'll have a great family who will love and protect you. But I don't have a mate that is coming with me and my children can't come either. You'll have Mariam and Squirt. You'll be fine. Just remember that I love you dear brother. You were the best brother I could have possibly asked for," Megan said. She kissed me on the forehead and then she was gone, leaving me alone with the burning reminder of where her lips had been.

"I think he is getting full. You should try to burp him," Edward said to someone else.

"We never burped the others," Dad replied.

"But that was a lot of blood and he's a month early. What if he swallowed air?" Edward asked.

"Alright," Dad said. I could see him remove the feeding tube and hand it to Mom, before repositioning Mett onto his shoulder. He patted lightly a few times and then little Mett let out a giant burp full of bloody spittle.

"Aw, how cute! Here, let me help you baby," Mom said to Dad. She had something in her hand and she began to wipe first the baby and then my dad up.

"Robby, I want you to meet your baby brother Mett," Dad said standing over me with the baby. "Thank you so much for your sacrifice son. I want you to know that I love you dearly."

"Yes, we all do, Robby dear," Mom said sitting on the bed next to where I was curled up in pain. She wiped the hair out of my eyes. "Edward is going to stay with you. If you need anything, just ask him and he'll be on it."

"Robby, your mom and I want to go check on Megan and then take Mett home. We'll come back to see your transformation tomorrow. I know this sounds impossible, but you should try to sleep; this will be the last chance you ever get." Dad said. At the end he leaned down and hugged me with one arm, while he still had the baby in the other arm. Mett looked a lot like my dad and I got scared looking in his red eyes. Then I saw the same red eyes in my dad and pushed myself away from him. I would have jumped back and ran, but scooting away and cowering was all that I seemed capable of. It hurt to do that much.

"What's wrong Robby?" Dad asked.

"You bit me."

"I know, Robby, we agreed on it. I bit you to make you like me, so you could live with us forever," Dad said. "I love you."

"It hurt."

"I know it hurt, we talked about that too. It's gonna hurt at first, but after three days, there won't be any more pain ever again."

"You bit me and it hurt. It still hurts."

"Robby, look at me," he commanded. When I did not budge, he pulled my face up so that I was looking him in the eyes. "Your mom and I love you very much and I wouldn't have hurt you unless I needed to. It was the only way to save your life. This will stop tomorrow and then I promise you, no one will ever hurt you again."

I nodded and looked down, breaking eye contact. I could not quite focus on what he was saying, because of the burning pain, but I did get the part about him loving me.

Mom hugged and kissed me and whispered something in my ear. And then they were gone and it was just me and Edward and the pain.

I am not sure how it happened, but I found myself dreaming again. I dreamt that I was being burned alive in a big fiery pit in the ground. Then someone pulled me out of the pit and shot me with a fire-extinguisher, covering my body in white foam and putting out the fire. I thought that someone might be Edward, but I could not see. The pain stopped first from my toes and then my fingers, radiating inward towards my limbs. It traveled quickly then, condensing into a core of lava in my heart, which raced faster and faster as the fire raged hotter and hotter.

Then it went out. The fire, the pain, and my heart; all three just went out, as if it had been no more than a candle flame flickering in the wind and a mild gust had come by and put it all out. I breathed a sigh of relief, very thankful that the pain had receded. It occurred to me then that there were a lot of people in this room with me, watching me sleep. There were many sets of breaths, coming from all over the room. Was Edward still here, watching and protecting me? Did he know about all of the others? How many were there? And was one of them a baby? If not, who was making that weird gurgling noise?

"Robby, it's Dad. Can you open your eyes now? We've all been waiting," Dad said. One of the sets of breath closest to me must have belonged to him.

"Mommy's here too," my mom said. She sounded like she was standing right next to Dad and the gurgling person.

I opened my eyes, weary to what I might find, and shut them again. The light was too bright. Everything was blurry and I could make sense of none of it. I had been looking towards where I thought my mom and dad were standing, but I could not see them through the light.

"It's alright, try again. It's just taking your eyes some time to acclimate to the change," Dad said.

I did as he said, slowly opening my eyes, to find a tiny fleck of grey floating right in front of them. It had three straight edges and one jagged one and it could not have been larger than a pinprick. Was it made out of paper or plastic? I could not tell, so I reached out to touch it.

"That's dust," Edward said and two people giggled.

They were high pitched ringing giggles that seemed oddly familiar. I turned to look towards the source of the giggles, but I got disorientated, because one moment I was looking at the dust and the next my head was turned and I was looking at Violet and Lily. Only they were not my sisters, but scary monsters in the guise of my sisters. I shrank back in fear as I watched the light gleam off of their deadly sharp teeth. I could not look at the one shaped like Violet anymore; she was just too bright and it hurt my eyes, so I turned back to the particle of dust that had now landed on my nose.

I took a deep breath in through my nose and the dust particle went flying again. It was paper, I was sure of it.

"Robby, over here," Dad said and movement in the room drew my attention to a huge man. He was waving at me and carrying a toddler and they both had giant smiles with the same gleaming white teeth. I bet they could bite right through my neck anytime they wanted to, especially him.

"Your father won't hurt you. He loves you," Edward said.

As quickly as he said it, I was looking at him. Edward was sitting close to my bed, as he had before I went to sleep. He had been sitting there all day, protecting me, and now the monsters were here to get me.

"I know we look a little different with your new eyes, but we're not monsters. This is your family. They all came back to see you now that you're awake," Edward said and his teeth gleamed, so I shrank back in fear again. "Could everybody close their mouths and stop smiling; you're scaring the boy with your teeth."

Every mouth shut, except for the baby's; he reached out and giggled.

"No, not yet Mett. You have to give him some time; he hasn't even eaten yet," Dad said.

Was that Mett? Was that the baby I had been carrying for all of these years? I remembered my dad saying something about using the baby to save me when I was younger. I was sick and dying and not even thirty, and then I was happy and healthy. But then I had not thought to ask for an explanation and Dad did not tell me until much later. Later took ninety years to come, but at least the egg also explained why I was so fat, no matter how much I went to the gym.

Something was missing. I looked down at myself and saw that my stomach was flat and smooth; I even had a few slight indications where the muscles were. That is right: Mom cut the egg out of me yesterday, but where was the cut? There was no scar, no faint line, and no puckered skin. There was no incision or stiches. There was no sign at all that I had had an egg inside me just yesterday; there was nothing but smooth flawless bright white skin. What happened to my tan? I used to be fairly dark for a Classic, thanks to the Mexican in my genetic background. My file says a quarter Mexican, but then people are lazy about filing paperwork when they want to get rid of a kid and be done with it, so who knows.

"Yes, the surgery happened yesterday," Edward said.

"I know this will all seem weird to you right now Robby," Mom said, "but a lot of things have changed now that you're a vampire. The change healed you, sealing up your stitches and removing the scar. It's normal."

"It's also normal to feel thirsty. Is your throat burning?" Dad asked and the baby nodded, his short brown curls shinning in the light. "Not you Mett; we just fed you." Mett cried then and Dad started bouncing him up and down and shushing him.

Come to think of it, the fire did not disappear in my heart; it just moved to my throat, as if someone had poured lava down it. I was thirsty. Very thirsty. I nodded and the baby nodded with me, smiling again.

"Em, you're going to have to leave before we can take him hunting," Edward said, eyeing my brother meaningfully.

"Alright, Mett and I'll leave in a moment," Dad replied. "Now Robby, I want you to listen to Edward and only hunt where and what he tells you to. Do _not_, I repeat, do not for any reason wander off, lose sight of him, or leave him. Got it?"

"Water?" I asked slightly confused. I was thirsty, so why were we going hunting? Why could I not just have a glass of water?

"That won't quench your thirst anymore my sweet boy," Mom said. "Edward and I are going to take you to get a nice juicy deer. How does that sound?"

Mett shook his head, so I did too.

"It's fine," Edward said for me.

"Are you going to stay with Edward and not run off?" Dad asked me.

Edward was the one protecting me from all the monsters, so staying with him sounded like a good idea. "Yes."

"Good boy," Dad said, handing the baby over to Mom. He gave me a hug, before moving away again and taking the baby back. "Come on Violet, Lily."

"Aw, do we have to?" Violet asked. "I want to go hunting too."

"You just went," Dad said and motioned for my sisters to follow him out the door. Mett must have realized that he was not getting any of whatever it was we were having, because he started crying. He was really loud too, because I could hear him long after they all left.

'Scry told me where to find a grizzly,' Masen said coming into the room for the first time.

"Good. Let's go," Edward said.

"Come on," Mom said, motioning for all of us to leave the room. I followed Mom out the door and realized that we had been in the office building, where Mom worked, the entire time. "We all need to stay in a group."

I looked behind me, to see if I was in the group like I was told. Edward and Masen were following us, but distantly. When we got into the open forest, Masen went to my left and Edward went to my right, with Mom in the lead, and the four of us ran. Fast. I mean really fast. I did not think it was possible to run faster, but then Masen took off in the lead and we followed. I pushed myself to go faster and Edward did too, staying neck and neck with me, but Mom fell behind a bit.

And then I smelt it. Masen was drinking it. His teeth gleamed red with it. It made my throat burn worse than lava. I wanted I.T. I took it from him, only he was gone before I got there, leaving it all for me. I drank it. All of it. It was warm and sweet and juicy. It put out the fire in my throat. But then it was empty, and I wanted more.

I looked down and there was a dead lifeless deer in my arms. Its throat was torn open and its blood was on my hands and fingers. I licked them. Why did I do that?

"It's normal. Vampires drink blood," Edward said.

'Come on, let's get another,' Masen said.

Did I just steal the deer from Masen? Was he going to drink it?

'Yes, to both,' he said.

Had I asked my question out loud? Did he think I was awful for stealing from him?

'No, you're not awful, just thirsty. I knew you were going to take it from me; that's why I moved out of your way. Besides, I drank right before we left,' he said shrugging. 'Now can we get going already?'

"Leave the carcass there Robby, so the wolves can get it," Mom said, motioning me to follow her again.

I did. I left the deer and followed my mother and we went hunting again. This time I made the kill and took down the deer. Then I had another and another. As I hunted, we got further and further away from our compound, until Masen announced, 'This is it; this is where Scryan saw the grizzly.'

I was very full by then, but once I smelt the bear, that was forgotten. I had to have it and I did have it. Bear tasted wonderful compared to deer and I tried to savor it. Instead of gulping it down, I sucked slow and steadily. Then I got scared that someone was going to steal this delicious blood from me, so I looked up to see where everyone was. Edward and Mom were there watching me, but Masen was gone. Was he sneaking up on me?

"Don't worry; no one is going to take it from you. You can take your time. Masen went after the other grizzly," Edward said.

There was another grizzly? Where? I could drink that too, because this one was empty now.

"He's already on his way back. If you're still thirsty, we can look for something else to drink," Edward replied.

I stood up and could hear the blood sloshing around inside my stomach. Maybe I really was full this time.

'Race you back,' Masen announced, suddenly appearing in the field.

Mom, Edward, and Masen started running again simultaneously and I went with them. We ran until we reached Masen's house. I lived there and shared a room with Masen, just like my parents told me to. I listened to Edward and Bella. I played with Masen. I argued with Eliza. And my life revolved around blood. I hunted and I drank blood. As time went on, I became convinced that Mett was getting better blood than me; he just smelled tastier.

"Masen, what do they feed the baby? Do they take him out to hunt?" one day I asked of my friend.

'No, they feed him baby blood. Like formula,' he replied.

"He doesn't smell like it. He smells sweet and nutty and delicious."

'Yeah, it smells better.'

"Then it must taste better. Can I have some?"

'No, it doesn't taste better; it just smells better. It's old and refrigerated before he gets it, so it tastes awful. There's no heart pumping it to make it taste perfect and juicy.'

"You sound like you've had it."

'I have had it. I was a baby too once.'

"Oh…If it tastes so awful, why does he always make faces when they say they're gonna take me hunting? Why doesn't he want to go hunting too?"

'He's never been hunting.'

"Why not?"

'It's hard to take a baby hunting.'

"Why doesn't he ever want to try? He always seems so enthusiastic about blood, but he doesn't want to try it?"

'He smells it on us and doesn't want it. He knows his stuff smells better, so he doesn't want to try the stinky stuff. Plus, he doesn't want to go, because he's never been and doesn't know how great it is.'

"He seems to like his formula."

'He does. I liked it too when I was a baby.'

"I still want to try it."

'You will someday, but right now there is a shortage, so only babies can have it.'

"Why's there a shortage?"

'Because the grownups have to make it. They can only make so much of it and there are a lot of new babies right now.'

"Oh…" I said.

I forgot about baby blood for a while and concentrated on animal blood. It became my mission to taste them all and categorize them, looking for the perfect taste. Some were sweeter, some were stinkier, some were more pulsating, and some just had more. More blood.

And then one day after a typical hunt, Edward, Eliza, Masen, and I went back towards my house, the Hale house, for the first time since I was changed. Mom was there and she stopped us just as we were entering the clearing.

"Robby, you still can't live here with us, because Megan remains human. You're going to live with the Swans a little while longer, okay?" Mom asked me. I nodded and turned to head towards the Swan house. "Wait, not yet."

I waited. Why are we here if she was not taking me home? Why did we not head directly over to the Swan house?

"I need to talk to you about Megan," Mom continued. "Remember how all four of you agreed to be turned into vampires? You, Megan, Mariam, and Squirt?"

Squirt was Justin's nickname. Justin was my stepson.

"Yeah. Where's Mariam? Can I see her?" I asked.

"Mariam went back to Texas. She's not going to be turned into a vampire just yet, so you can't see her, but I do want you to talk to Megan for me. I was going to turn her soon, but she doesn't want to be changed anymore. I need you to go in this house and tell your sister that you like being a vampire and that it doesn't hurt anymore. You need to help me convince her to become a vampire. Can you do that for me?" she asked and I nodded, wanting to help my mom and wanting my sister to be like me. "Good."

'Robby, this is gonna be really hard, but it's very important that you don't drink your sister, no matter how good she smells,' Masen said.

"Does she smell like Mett?" I asked.

'She smells like what Mett has been eating, but fresh and pulsating,' he replied.

"Don't exaggerate Masen," Edward said. "She doesn't smell that good, but she does smell fresh and pulsating."

Mom went inside the house and came right back out carrying Megan's coat. "She smells like this," Mom said, tossing me the coat.

I sniffed it and it did smell good; better than bear even. It smelled very sweet, but at the same time, it smelled off, like it was rotten or something.

"She will taste rotten too, if you try to bite her. But you cannot ever try to bite her, because she will die," Edward said.

"If you feel like biting her, then stop breathing and hold your breath until you get out of there," Mom added.

'You can do this. The others and I went to school with you when you were human and we never tried to bite you,' Masen said.

"Did I smell like this?" I asked.

'Better.'

"This is important Robby: your sister's life depends on you. If you don't go in there and show her that you're alright, she won't let me change her and she'll die when Lilac is born next week. If you do go in there and bite her, then she'll die today," Mom said.

"Does it have to be me?" I asked. Lily and Violet were vampires too; could one of them do it instead?

'We can't do it, because we've always been vampires. Megan wants to see someone who's changed from human to vampire,' Masen said.

"You're her brother Robby. You have to help her decide," Mom said.

"Alright, I'll do it," I said.

"Good, let's go," Edward said.

I took a large breath and steeled myself for what was to come. I walked in that front door convinced that I was not going to eat my sister. I was going to set a good example for what a vampire was and tell her that it did not hurt anymore. Once she knew that I was no longer burning, she would want to be like me. She would let Mom change her and then we would all live happily ever after as one big family.

"Hi Megan," I said, walking into the living room and seeing my sister waiting for me on the couch. She was very big and swollen with egg and my dad was standing guard over her. Violet and Lily were in the corner. Violet was holding Mett, but she passed him off to Lily right as I walked in.

"Robby! You're alive!?" Megan exclaimed, standing up. She looked like she wanted to hug me, but Dad stopped her and she sat back down.

"Yeah, what did you think?" I asked.

"I thought they were lying to me. I thought you died the day after Mett was born. What was I supposed to think; they never let me see you again!"

"You were supposed to think I was a vampire. We all agreed on this Megs."

"I know, but then I saw you lying there and I couldn't go through with it. You were burning."

"It only felt that way for a few days. I'm fine now."

"You don't burn at all?" she asked skeptically. "Or did you just get used to the burning?"

"It still burns a little in my throat," I said, instinctively grabbing my throat as I said it.

I was full because I had just drank my fill, but as always, my throat started burning again the moment I was reminded of it. Only it was worse this time, because of my sister's smell. She was sweet and I wanted to taste her. But she also smelled rotten and she was my sister, so I did not want to taste her. I ended up compromising by throwing myself to the floor and screaming, "It burns," over and over again.

Dad picked me up and carried me out of the house and I did not even fight him too much, but it was too late, because Megan's worst fears had been realized. She thought I was still burning and she did not want to spend eternity burning too, so she refused to let Mom change her. Lilac was born a week later and with her birth, my sister died. I tried to run away right after that, but Mom and Dad refused.

"Robby, your dad and I really don't want you to go. We want you to live with us and your brother and sisters. You can leave us, if you really want to, after another eleven months, but our law states that you can't leave the person that bit you until the first year is up," Mom said.

"We can't make you stay after a year, but you can't blame yourself for what Megan chose. It was her decision and she did what was right for her. And don't forget about Mariam and Squirt; they're still waiting for their time to join you," Dad said.

Everyone else agreed that I was not permitted to leave before a year was up and most of them seemed willing to use force to stop me, so I stayed and forgot about leaving for a time. But when Mett's first birthday came around, I remembered and decided to leave. I forgot that Mariam and Justin were to be changed only days later and I was gone before anyone could remind me. I wallowed in my sister's death and convinced myself that it was my fault.

I wandered aimlessly around Canada, drinking animals and avoiding humans as much as possible, until one day I met a familiar face. He was on a jogging trail that I wanted to cross and I was hiding behind a tree, watching and waiting for the coast to be clear of humans. But then I saw him and stepped out into the path. It was Ethan, my first boyfriend from high school. He was the boy I had lost my virginity to and the only person beside Mariam that I had ever had sex with. We were in love. And then one day my parents found out and he ran off. The next time I saw him again was at school. He broke up with me then and that was the end of dating for me for a long time.

"Ethan?" I asked when I saw him.

"Uh yeah…Do I know you?" he replied. He stared at me for about a minute before recognition dawned on his face. "Robby? Is that you?"

"Yep."

"Where have you been all these years? I thought you were dead…you know, because of your illness?"

"Oh, they cured that a long time ago. I've been in Texas."

"Texas. Isn't that where the Whitlocks moved to? Did you, you know, get together with…um…what was her name? Brandon's sister?"

Brandon is Scryan's middle name and what the humans called him when we all went to junior high together.

"Ashley? No, she's still with Aiden. I married their cousin Mariam. We have six kids, Jagger, Jarrett, Jerald, Jordon, Ella, and Kylie. And she has one more from a previous marriage, Justin, but we call him Squirt."

"That's a lot of kids, you two must be very happy together. Where is she?"

"Um…I haven't seen her in a long time…I don't know, but I think she might still be in Texas somewhere…"

"What happened?" he asked concerned.

I could not think of how to answer that, so I kept quiet. Luckily, he supplied the answer for me. "Do you not want to talk about it?"

That sounded about right, so I nodded and looked down, hoping that he would not ask me anymore questions that I could not answer.

"Do you want to come over to my place and play video games?" he asked then.

It seemed like an odd request at first, because no one had asked me over to play video games in a long time. But Ethan and I used to hang out and play video games all of the time back when we were in high school. I wanted to do something normal again, like video games, so I said, "Yeah."

"Come on, I'll show you the way to my place," he said.

And so I followed Ethan down the path and back onto the street. We walked through the town until he stopped in front of a three story apartment building and announced, "This is it." Then he led me into the building and up two flights of stairs until we were on the top floor. He opened the door on the right and led me inside. "This is my apartment. It's not big, but I have the latest gaming system."

I followed him over to the corner of the room that was set up like a living room. The other side was a kitchen with a dining table shoved in the middle, but this side had a pair of non-matching couches, a large tv, and like he said, a state of the art gaming system.

"Awesome!" I said, taking a control and sitting down on the floor in front of the tv, like we used to do when we were kids. My grandkids still sit like this when I go over to their house and watch them for their parents…oh wait, I have not seen them in…I cannot remember the last time I saw them. What were their names?

"What's wrong? Don't you like this game?" he asked, starting up the system and loading some game I had never heard of.

"I haven't played it before," I replied, trying not to think about my grandkids. I would remember their names later.

"It's cool; we can go through the tutorial first."

Ethan showed me how to play the game and we sat there playing it for hours, until his eyes started drooping and he started yawning. "I'm gonna get a coffee. Do you want one?" he asked me, going over to the kitchen side of the room.

"No, I'm good," I replied, but I got up and went over to watch him. I could not remember the last time I had seen someone make coffee and I was curious as to what he was doing. I seemed to remember coffee being a relatively easy drink to make, but Ethan had a large complex looking machine with lots of three-dimensional icons and a touch screen, which he used to add cream and sugar to the mix, but the brown liquid still looked vial when it was done. It looked like creamy sludge; the type of thing the grandkids would make out in the yard and call a pie. When had they done that? I could not quite remember…

"Okay, so you don't like coffee," he said taking a large gulp. "I could make you some tea."

"No thanks," I said.

He took another gulp, put his drink down, and took three steps closer to me, until he was close enough to reach out and put his hand on my arm, which is exactly what he did. His touch tingled. "You look tired," he said, running his hand up my arm. My skin came alive under his hand and my breathing sped up. "And you're freezing! Why didn't you tell me you were so cold? I could've gotten you a blanket."

"I'm fine," I said, but he did not listen, rubbing the outside of my arms and creating a delicious friction that had me gulping for air, before he pulled away.

He went to the hall closest and pulled out a thick comforter, before leading me to the living room. "Sit," he said, indicating the couch. I sat. He sat down next to me and draped the blanket over both of us. My thigh burned with warmth were it met his as we sat side by side. "There, now you should warm up."

"I feel fine. You must be tired. I should go, I'm keeping you up," I said, stumbling for the right words while trying to hide my heavy breathing and intense reaction to his presence. I wanted him, but I also wanted to hide the evidence of my desire, causing me the squirm in my seat. I did not want to go, because I did not have anywhere else to be, but he was human and I knew he needed to sleep.

"No, I'm fine now. Do you have anywhere to go?" he asked and I shook my head. "You can spend the night here, with me. My couch is free." My breath hitched and caught in my throat as my mind raced to comprehend the meaning of his words. I could stay and I wanted more.

"I don't know if I should," I started to say, but he leaned in and kissed me before I could finish the last word.

His lips were warm and sweet…and pulsating. A tingle shot through my body, starting at my lips and ending in my toes, which twitched and curled in my shoes. It was sublime and I wanted another taste, so I leaned into him and pressed my lips back onto his, repeating the earlier sensation. He responded by moving his hot body closer to mine, making me pant with desire. He was a little too close, so I backed away, lying down on the couch a little bit in the process, because it was the only way I could move and keep our lips touching and I really _needed_ to keep contact with his lips, like my life depended on it. He moved closer again and I went a little further down and we repeated the process until I was lying on the couch and he was lying on top of me, grinding his body against mine and I could not hide my panting for breath and other bodily reactions. He must know how he was affecting me, but he was gasping for breath and I could feel his body's reacting too, so I figured he was feeling the same as I was.

I should have remembered that I was married and pushed him off, but all I could remember was how good this had felt when we were teenagers. It was feeling even better now, with the tingling sensation coalescing in my lower back and a pulsating need centered even lower. No one had touched me in such a long time and Ethan was touching me in all the right places, with fingers that felt like fiery hot magic. He smelled so good it was intoxicating and I let him unbutton my shirt and run his hands up and down my chest, while I sucked in lungful's of deliciousness. I let him touch me and press his body up against mine and grind on me, while I licked every drop of aroma out of the pores on his neck, but the scent just kept flowing with every beat of his heart and pulse of his blood through the tantalizing blue veins just under the skin on his neck. They were thick juicy veins crisscrossing and interlocking through his delicate flesh.

But that was a dangerous thought, so I pulled my sharp teeth away from his tasty neck and move back to his soft pouty lips. He let me kiss him. I was careful at first, keeping my mouth closed and my teeth away from his fragile skin. But he was kissing me open mouthed and his warm wet tongue was pushing on my tingling lips, urging me to open them. I did for a moment, licking his lips in return, but then I moved onto kissing his jaw. He had a strong, wonderful jaw with just the right amount of stubble and it led to his most wonderfully pulsating neck. Forgetting my earlier resolve to stay away from the temptation, I kissed and sucked my way back to that neck, being careful not to nick him, and that is where I became entranced by the most wonderful smells and sounds I could ever remember. It was warm, sweet, aromatic, and beating faster and harder, pumping the enticing aroma into the air at an increasing rate.

I tried to remember that human blood was rotten; I knew that from having smelled Megan. Humans were not food, animals were, and Ethan was a human. But he smelled like baby food. He smelled like the blood my parents fed Lilac and Mett. I had always wondered what baby blood tastes like. Was it really human? Were there humans out there with unspoilt blood? Humans who were giving their blood to feed the babies? Had little Mett and Lilac been drinking human all this time, while I was drinking animal?

I was not drinking animal. I do not know how it happened, but it was Ethan I was drinking. His blood was flowing into my mouth and down my throat and it was delicious. It quenched my thirst and set my body ablaze with life and warmth. It was by far, without a doubt, the best blood I have ever tasted. It tasted just like it smelled, perfect and juicy and it satisfied me in a way animal blood never had. But it was Ethan. It was my boyhood friend. He was my first boyfriend. I loved him. He was a person too.

Suddenly I felt sick and disgusted with myself. I had not been thirsty, because I had found a pair of wolves right before I crossed that jogging path. I had been trying to avoid humans as I crossed the path, but then I had notice my friend. I had only followed him into town because I was lonely and bored, not because I wanted to kill a human…a friend. I pulled my teeth away from his skin and stopped sucking, but his blood continued to pump and squirt out of the hole. I could not let his precious blood be wasted, so I licked it up and the most amazing thing happened: the hole in his neck sealed itself up. The large gaping hole my teeth had made was gone.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please be okay Ethan," I begged. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

I held him there in my arms for a long time. I thought I had killed him at first, because he did not move or say anything when I was begging him to be alright. But then I realized that his heart was still beating…it was faint, but it was still there. Lub…Dub…Lub…Dub…it was memorizing, but it was there and that was the important thing. As long as his heart was still beating, he was alive. Maybe he would survive this. Maybe he would be okay.

I left him then. I did not know what else to do. It had not occurred to me to call the police, because they were a human organization and this was a vampire problem. It did occur to me to call my parents and ask for their help. They had medical equipment and they could probably treat Ethan and help him get better faster. But I had left them and I had done something I was embarrassed about. Did I really want my mom and dad to know that I accidently bit one of my dear friends? What if my sisters found out? How would I ever live that down?

Moreover, we had rules and laws that governed our existence that I was not supposed to break. Edward had said them over and over again when I was staying with Masen and their family. What were they? At the time I had been obsessed with animal blood and the burning in my throat. It was constant and burning. It was demanding and unyielding. It made it hard for me to concentrate on what Edward said, especially when he was not talking about blood. Most of the rules were not about blood.

"Keep the secret," Edward had said. That was the main law.

Don't hurt humans, don't hurt babies, and most importantly keep the secret. Okay, so on the plus side I had not hurt a baby…on the minus side I had hurt a human. Edward had covered what would happen to humans who knew too much. "They have to be killed," he had said.

If I took Ethan back to my family for help, they would not only know that I had hurt a human and broken the law, but they would also kill Ethan in order to keep the secret.

I did not like the idea of killing Ethan. I had gone through a lot of trouble to stop drinking him. That had been really hard for me…possibly even the hardest thing I have ever done and it would all be wasted if he did not survive. So I could not take Ethan home to my parents for help. But what could I do?

I decided that the best thing I could do for Ethan was to leave him. I locked his apartment door and went back out into the forest surrounding the city to hunt. But the animals did not satisfy the burning in my throat the way Ethan's blood had and I could not wash away his scent from my skin. No matter how much I washed, I smelled like him, and it reminded me constantly of him. After four days, I decided I had to know what happened to him. Had he survived? Was he still in that apartment healing? If not, was he in there dead? Was there maybe some leftover blood that I might have?

With mixed intentions, I went back into that apartment complex. I opened his door and found Ethan right where I had left him; almost. I had left him on the couch, with his head neatly propped on a throw pillow and the blanket draped on top of him, as if he were sleeping. He had not been moving, as if he were in a coma, but now he was awake and had most definitely moved from where I left him. He was curled up on the ground in the corner and muttering, "It burns. It burns," over and over again.

This seemed eerily familiar. Suddenly I was reminded of when my dad had bit me and I had been burning: that was how I became a vampire. Had I turned Ethan into a vampire? His heart was still beating, so maybe not. I decided to go closer to investigate.

Ethan most definitely did not smell like a human. He smelled like a vampire. There was nothing there that could be drunk, I was sure of it. And if I could not drink him, I did not have to worry about hurting him anymore than I already had.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen," I said, going to him and taking him into my arms.

"It burns," he said.

"I know it does, but it'll be over soon," I replied, stroking his hair.

"Stay with me?" he asked.

"Yes, I'll stay. I'm sorry I left you. I was worried that I would hurt you more, but now I can see that I won't. I won't leave you again."

"I was scared…. it burns… and I was all alone… and you were gone… so I was scared." It took him a great deal of effort to get out all of those words and I realized that he must be in a lot of pain. He was probably in as much pain as I had been.

"I promise you it'll get better and that I won't leave you again."

And so I held him and waited with him until his heart stopped beating, his burning stopped, and he became a vampire. I was not certain what to do, but then I thought back to when I was new and what my family had done with me. They had taken me out hunting for animals and that is what I took Ethan out to do. It was pitch black at night, so I had hoped that we would be able to get through the city and into the forest without running into humans. We still had a secret to protect, after all.

My plan almost worked, but Ethan and I ran into a group of drunken humans walking home from a bar. There were two men and a woman and he instinctively went towards the first man. I tried to resist, but the other man and woman started screaming and running, so I went after them, to keep the secret. I snapped the neck of the second man, without thinking what I was doing, and then I grabbed the woman and she smelled so sweet and pulsating that I just had to have her. I savored her taste as her blood ran down my throat and quenched the eternal burning in a way that animal blood just could not do.

I did not know this woman, so nothing stopped me from draining her dry. Her heart stopped and I could suck no more of her precious fluid out and that is when I looked up to see that not only had Ethan drained the first man, but he was now drinking the second man. Oh well, the human had to die anyway and he needed to drink something. At least now I would not have to find him some animals.

Together we picked up the three bodies and buried them in a shallow grave, before heading into the forest. I managed to keep him there for a week, but I did not manage to get him to drink an animal. All I could find in the area were deer and they smell disgusting and he just would not drink one. Then we ran across two humans camping in the woods and that was it: we drank them and I realized that it felt right. Drinking humans felt right. Ethan was right. Deer were not food and humans were.

From then on Ethan and I hunted exclusively humans. I kept the secret and taught him to as well, so we stayed to the outskirts of town and only took isolated Classics when no one was watching. After a couple of weeks, we moved on to the next town and repeated our hunting activities. He was new, so he required feeding often and I was not about to complain about that. I was greatly enjoying my new food source and I was a bit gluttonous with it. And so we traveled from city to city eating as we pleased, with me keeping us out of trouble.

We traveled until long after a year was up. I told Ethan than he was allowed to leave me then, if he wanted, but he did not want. He wanted to stay with me. He loved me, he said, but also I think he was afraid to leave me and be on his own. This was a scary world for a new vampire and being so young myself, I understood that. I was his creator and I felt responsible for him, so I stayed with him. And when he wanted more, when he wanted to kiss me again, I let him.

I still loved Mariam, but I hardly thought about her anymore, because she was not here with me. I did not even know if she had become a vampire, like we had agreed. If she had, why had I not seen her? Most likely because she had not become a vampire, I concluded. She was dead, my heart had stopped, and our vows were, "Til death do us part," so I was free and clear to pursue a romantic relationship with Ethan.

I was a widower and he was hot, passionate, and all over me. I liked it. It reminded me of how in love we were in high school and I wanted more. We were happy together. And then one day Mariam showed up.

"There you are! Do you know how hard it was for me to find you?" she asked me. It was very surreal seeing my wife again. She looked even more beautiful than before. I was sure she was dead, but here she was, a vampire and radiant as ever.

"Who's this?" Ethan asked, when I did not say anything.

"Ethan, this is my wife Mariam. Mariam, this is my boyfriend, Ethan," I introduced the two. It was an awkward introduction and I could not think of how else to say it, so I just said it.

"Your wife? I thought you said she was dead?" Ethan asked.

"Your boyfriend? Why didn't you wait for me?" Mariam asked.

"I forgot," I said.

It was the truth. After Megan died, I forgot to wait for Mariam and I ran off. It took me a while to explain it to both of them, but eventually I did, although they were both mad at me. Mariam convinced me to come back home, to the Cullen complex in Manitoba, and Ethan agreed to come with us. At first.

Mom and Dad were ecstatic to see me again and know that I was still alive. Justin was a vampire. A pair of newling Kair and Kares lived permanently with the Whitlocks. Lilac and Mett were two years older. And everyone drank animal blood.

That was the problem: the diet. Ethan could not do it. He could never bring himself to actually drink such a disgusting thing. I had trouble with it at first, but then it came back to me. All of those deer, wolves, and bears I had drank when I was new suddenly made drinking them again now seem normal, despite the retched taste. And I fell right back into my life with Mariam, because well, she was my sole mate, while Ethan was just my boyfriend. I loved him, but I was meant to be with her. And between me leaving him and eating animals, he could not take it and he left. He was over a year old, so I had to let him go, but I still asked all the nomads that passed by for updates on him. Fred just saw him last month, so I know he is out there somewhere.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Who do you think Robby was meant to be with? His passion seems to burn brighter for Ethan, but his parents approve of Mariam. Please Review!<p> 


	64. Book4 Carlisle ch7

Carlisle POV:

French Ebola: that is what the humans were calling it. Never mind that there was no hemorrhage or lung involvement associated with the dead and forget about the bite marks on the necks and complete lack of blood. And the fact that neither the Ebola RNA genome nor its mRNA could be isolated or amplified from the dead was completely ignored. Ebola was synonymous with massive sudden death, so any time an entire village was suddenly found to be dead, it was an Ebola of some kind. With three villages in the same country all decimated, this was clearly an Ebola-like pattern. And since these cases were all localized to France, the name French Ebola stuck.

The humans had already taken samples from the victims back to their labs and failed to amplify the Ebola genome, or any other pathogenic genome for the matter, but still they called it an Ebola. If it was not genetically related to the disease that had torn the human world apart, then it was some other yet unknown virus. No Bacteria, Archaea, or Eukaryotes were seen in the cultures and no prions were observed in the brain tissue, so it had to be a virus, because the humans could think of no other reason for an entire town suddenly succumbing to death.

I was not so lucky. I recognized the signs, even the teeth marks, in the photographs displayed in the news headlines. I even knew whose teeth they were, because I had seen their impression left behind plenty of times during my stay in Volterra all of those years ago. She had a quite distinctive bite impression, because she was so young when she was changed. Her twelve year old molars had yet to come in on the day of her death and they never would come in now. Plus, her mouth was smaller than the average vampiric mouth, so her bite really was unique.

I think I would recognize Jane's bite mark anywhere, especially after spending the past two months staring at it in photo after photo from the news stories. First it was Bordeaux, but then Lyon and now Blois were demolished, one human at a time. Bordeaux has seen better days and at first I wanted to believe the human reports of a virus wiping out the small remaining human population; I even let myself think that the photograph with the bite marks was a rare exception or that Jane had only gone there after the fact to take advantage of the blood. But when Lyon and Blois were hit too, Jane became my number one priority.

I had had several brushes with Jane in the years since the downfall of her former master. She openly opposed my efforts to bring about a vampiric democracy and flaunted the law whenever she could, daring me to come after her. Her actions were understandable, given that my coven was responsible for taking everyone she had ever cared about away from her. She has never had a mate and her vampire family members were all in Volterra when we dropped our bomb. It was only by chance that Jane happened to be out of the country at the time and was therefore spared.

Jane's friends had all been in Volterra when the bomb went off, but even more important was the fact that the blast had killed her creator, Aro. Aro had rescued her from being burned at the stake as a child during the witch hunts. He had protected her and was a father to her when her own biological father had shunned her and let that mob torture her. Jane would never forgive his loss.

Marcus was like an uncle to Jane and she missed him almost as much as she missed Aro, but it was Alec who she missed the most. Her twin brother had been with her since before she was born. He had endured the burning at the stake and the burning transformation that came after, right along with her. He had been by her side for her first two thousand plus years as an immortal. He was her best friend and now he was gone and that was not something Jane could handle.

And so Jane acted out and flaunted our laws. I knew that secretly she wished for death so that she could join her brother and father and the rest of their coven. I hoped that if I just gave her time to deal with her grief and forgave one more infraction, letting her off with a warning or a slap on the wrist, then she might come to see the error in her ways; that she might come to want to live again. Maybe if she found a new coven and made some new friends she could find it in her to go on.

But with three decimated human villages, I just could not look the other way any longer. Jane was begging for someone to put her out of her misery and it seemed that I would be forced into that dreaded role. The last thing I wanted to do was kill a little girl who had lost her entire family and everyone she had ever loved, but she was giving me no choice. I could not imprison a vampire and Jane could not be stopped, so I would have to step forward and do the unthinkable.

My family sensed my hesitation and understood how hard this decision was for me. As the first president of the DRV I wanted to be able to do this myself and exert my authority to enforce our laws, but I was grateful, relieved even, when Jasper and Peter stepped forward and volunteered to take care of Jane for me. They had experience metering out this type of harsh, swift justice and they had no moral objections to it. Hence, I let them go.

I officially ordered Jane's death and let my adoptive son and his brother carry out the sentence, while I stayed put in the safety of our capital. I felt like a coward for not being able to do it myself. I felt like a monster for letting my sons taint their own hands with Jane's spilt blood. And worst of all, I felt like all of my moral convictions were rendered null and void by authorizing the murder of a child; even a sick guilty one. The only thing that brought me any kind of solace was knowing that once she was gone, she would no longer be able to slaughter towns filled with innocent humans.

No more deaths would be had at Jane's hands, but even I could not lie to myself and pretend that this was the reason it was alright to destroy her. The world is filled with vampires and each one kills humans regularly to sustain themselves. On average every vampire alive today takes one human per week and when multiplied over lifespans that are typically measured in the thousands of years, then that is a lot of humans. No, if it were not for the threat she posed to our society, I would have let her live.

The DRV was a new fledging government, democracy was a new concept for our citizens, and there was no guarantee that it would work. I was building a house of cards and right now, before that house could be reinforced with steel and concrete, the slightest wind could knock it over. If one vampire is seen to be impervious to our rule then the rest could follow and we would have anarchy on own hands. Our fragile little government would crumble and all of my hard work would be for naught.

I could not let the DRV fall. For the good of vampires everywhere, we need government and law and order. For the children, we need safety and stability. And for my son Aiden specifically, he will need to inherit a solid, well-built country not in a state of civil unrest or revolution. His life will be better and easier when he takes over the country, if I lay down the laws and see to their enforcement now, even if I do not actually do the enforcing myself.

Human leaders do not go themselves to settle disputes, not even in times of war. They engage in diplomatic peace talks with the enemy. When that fails and it is time to dish out punishment, they sit back and let their armies work for them. Or, in domestic matters, they have police assigned to deal with the law breakers. The same held true with vampire society, because Aro, Caius, and Marcus rarely went after an offender themselves. They typically sent a small group of dedicated Guard members to handle the situation and only when a major infraction occurred did they go themselves. And so I took a page from their book and scent Jasper and Peter.

When Peter and Jasper returned, they informed me that the mission had gone as planned and that Jane had barely resisted, not even using her power to defend herself. I believed them and honestly thought nothing of significance had occurred until Edward came to me with disturbing news later that day. "Jasper and Peter harvested leather and teeth from Jane before they burned her body," Edward said.

"What?" I spluttered. I had heard what he said, but I had never heard of such a practice before. What leather could they have possibly harvested from a vampire? Why would they torture her, when she gave up willingly?

"They needed the teeth to cut the leather from her body. Back in his days in Maria's army, Jasper and Peter learned how to make leather from the skin of a vampire. When they are done, they burn the remainder of the body and use the teeth to cut the leather into whatever they need. It makes the most durable material known to vampires," Edward replied.

"Why?" I asked out loud. In my head I added, 'Why would they do that? What use could they possibly have for vampire leather? They better not be planning on selling it for a profit.'

"They won't sell it. Jasper needs it for his time-traveling twins. He and Peter are planning on making bracelets and leashes to bind the girls together so that they do not get separated in time. Also, they will make backpacks that were used to bring Jasper blood when he was trapped in that wormhole for all of those years. Apparently without the leather Jasper, Kair, and Kare would have all perished in that wormhole. Well Jasper can't die, but without the girls to save him, he would be stuck in there forever. Plus, if the girls are never born, then they can't travel into the past to save us from the Volturi," Edward answered.

"Does anyone else know about this?" I asked concerned. It was bad enough that it had happened, even if it was a necessary part of defeating the Volturi. It would be even worse if it got out that we torture fugitives who willingly turn themselves in.

"No, they were careful about it."

"What should I do about Peter and Jasper?" I asked. 'Will they do it again? How can I stop a repeat?'

"They did it out of necessity and won't do it again. I suggest you let them keep the leather, but give them one of your lectures on the sanctity of all life and not torturing others needlessly. I also wouldn't let those two go on another assignment together; they obviously need supervision," he replied.

"Alright. I never even considered that this was a possibility…or that there was a need for such a material…" I trailed off.

And so I confronted my son and his brother about what they had done to poor Jane and made them both promise to never go behind my back like that again or torture a prisoner. They agreed and the whole thing gave Allison an idea for another one of her pet projects: synthetic vampire leather.

It could not be reproduced chemically and vampire skin would not grow in the lab, but human skin would. Humans had long ago perfected cell culture for human skin cells and Allison was hoping to use these cultures as a base. She would then add synthetic venom and try to transform the cells into vampire skin cells _in vitro_. I was not optimistic about the project, but at least it was giving Allison something constructive to do with her time and keeping her out of trouble. And Alice was very excited about the prospect of designing with vampire leather.


	65. Book4 Vladimir ch8

Vladimir's POV:

"Stay back," I growled at the blond vampire, grabbing Cabar and throwing her onto my back. Ramsey sensed the danger and took up his defensive stance behind me, with his back to my back. Not that he could do much good, but he was a good boy and obeyed his lessons and he had been taught to take a defensive stance when threatened.

Ramsey and Cabar were two hundred years old and the size of human three year olds. They were old enough to know what was expected of them, but not necessarily old enough to do it. And it is just my luck that my first time babysitting them at my house, my real house back in Romania, I would run into trouble. Esme and Carlisle trusted me with their children in Manitoba and on Cullen Island, but they were much more weary of me watching them at home, out of their sphere of optimal response time. I had taken Aiden and Adriel to Romania before, but they were teenagers, not toddlers. This trip was my chance to prove myself; to prove that I could take care of my grandchildren.

Cabar, Ramsey, Aiden, and Adriel were all my grandchildren now. Amun and I had been friends for four thousand years, ever since our mutual hatred of the Volturi brought us together. We both lost covens at the hands of Caius, Aro, and Marcus. We both wanted revenge, although neither of us was in the position to get it for a long time. That all changed when Stefan and I met the Cullen Coven. They were being falsely accused of possessing an immortal child and took a stand against the Volturi. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so Stefan and I joined them in their fight and our covens have been allied ever since.

The Volturi were destroyed now. Amun was dead. And even Stefan was gone, although he was not dead; he was just remated and living with said mate in Sudanese territory. It is still difficult to pass back and forth between Classic and Sudanese domains, even for a vampire, so we did not see each other that often anymore. Now I spend my time with the Cullen Coven and they have made me an honorary member: an honorary grandfather, in fact. I was around the Cullens so often that their children started calling me Grandpa Vladimir. Cabar and Ramsey even called me Grandpa Vlad.

But all of that was in danger now, because a strange female was approaching me and my younglings. She was smaller than me and I could easily have taken her if it were one on one. But it was not one on one, because I had Ramsey and Cabar. The two toddlers I had to protect would give her the upper hand in a fight. Plus she was clearly younger, and therefore stronger, than me. Here I am, six thousand years old and the single oldest vampire alive at the moment, and up against a vampire who could not be more than twenty years old. In fact, she looked a lot younger, as if she was fresh out of that newborn stage.

Who was still biting vampires in this day and age? Ever since the population explosion associated with the eggs, no one has had time to do things like change humans or start fights. Carlisle's utopian dream for a democratic vampire society was mostly coming true. Everyone had children to care for and so the idea of peace was appealing for the first time in our collective memories. Suddenly everyone had something better to do that pick fights. It was like we all had shiny new toys to play with and even those vampires without children of their own, like me, had children in their lives.

But back to the problem at hand. Who was this woman and what was she doing in Romania, in my back yard, and under my nose. Sure I have been away a lot lately. I mostly stay at my castle on Cullen Island and go back and forth between there and the Manitoba compound. I keep myself busy running errands for the Cullens, keeping up the blood plant, and visiting with my grandchildren, so I do not find much time to come back here to my beloved Romania and my beloved castle.

My first castle, the one I had ruled in with the rest of my original coven, was here in Romania. It was never completely destroyed and in recent years it has been renovated to resemble more of its former glory. The humans now used it as a museum and gave guided tours right through the throne camber where my friends and family were slaughtered by the Volturi. I loved them all very much and I have never stopped thinking about those precious vampires that I have lost. At least I finally have my justice and the Volturi are dead; all of them, even Jane.

I was not taking the kids to see my first castle. I was not ready for that and the confrontation of my memories that would be associated with it. I could do it on my own when I did not have to stand strong, but not when I had grandbabies to protect. No, it was my second castle I was heading to. The castle Stefan, my precious Lucinda, and I had built into the mountains and cliff sides. It was opulent on the inside, but hidden from the outside, which meant we almost never had problems with thieves and that the Volturi had a hard time finding the place. And once they did find part of it, it was such a disjointed heavily concealed maze of tunnels that they had trouble navigating it and locating us. They found one tunnel near a pen of humans and were able to ambush my precious Lucinda when she came for dinner, but they never were able to pull Stefan or me out of that castle and the majority of it went undetected in the rock.

Had this new vampire uncovered my castle? Had she found out all of our secrets? Was it no longer safe? Should I turn back and return with my grandchildren to Cullen Island?

"So it's true! They're so adorable!" the stranger said coming closer far too quickly for my tastes.

I picked up Ramsey and jumped back a hundred yards, with Cabar still on my back. "Stay away," I warned.

"Why?" she asked, finally stopping and looking confused. "I just want a better look. I didn't believe it was real! These are the first ones I've seen. Romania doesn't have any children."

"Who are you?" I asked. I thought I knew all of the Romanian vampires, but here was one I have never seen before. One of the nomads must have changed her recently.

"I'm Ioana," she replied.

"Ioana of who and where?" I asked. When she gave me a blank stare, I asked another, "Who changed you?"

"Um, Sorina changed me."

Sorina was a name I knew. She was one of the nomads that mostly frequent the mountains, but occasionally could be found in the city of Bucharest. Sorina and I were never close, but she was innocuous and technically one of my prodigy. She had been changed four hundred years ago by a male vampire named Viorel. Viorel was changed by Dragomir, who was changed by Crina, who was changed by Rodica. Rodica was changed by Grigore and I changed Grigore three thousand years ago.

Three thousand years ago Stefan and I were forbidden to expand our coven, but every hundred years or so we would risk it, change someone, and set them free as a nomad. The plan was to create a network of vampires in the area that was friendly and possibly loyal to Stefan and me. The Volturi caught most of our creations, and as soon as they knew we had created them, they were destroyed. But enough survived long enough to change vampires of their own and continue the cycle and so all of the vampires in Romania were somehow related to me and at least partially loyal to me.

"I would've thought Sorina would teach her children some manners," I said, wondering why Sorina would still be changing vampires in this day and age. No one was biting humans now that they were busy hatching eggs.

"Huh?" she asked confused.

"You don't approach a vampire with hatchlings like that unless you want your head ripped off. How do I know you're not trying to kill my grandeggs?" I asked.

"What? You think I'd hurt your children? I just wanted to see a real vampire child up close," she said.

"Well then you should go to the capitol with that request, but don't approach us when we're out and about without a guard."

"Alright, but are you sure I can't just have one look? They're so adorable."

"Obviously you've already had a look, or you wouldn't know how adorable they are."

"Yes, but not a close one."

"You won't be getting a closer one unless you want your head ripped from your body," I warned. "Now back off."

"Oh, okay. How's this?" she asked, backing up fifty feet.

"Better. Now turn and go away," I ordered.

"Fine, but I hope someday you'll show me your eggs," she said before turning to leave.

"They're my grandeggs. I'm a grandfather," I called after her.

Sure she was too forward, but I was proud of my grandeggs and I wanted everyone to know that I was their grandfather. I was good at it too. I told stories, played peek-a-boo, and always had sweet packets of blood in my pocket. The sweets held about ten milliliters of blood and the packets would dissolve from the venom when placed on the tongue. Blood candies were Allison's latest invention and any good grandfather always had a pocket full of them for the grandeggs.

With the threat of Ioana's presence gone, I preceded to take Ramsey and Cabar to my castle. I took a round-a-bout way, to make sure I was not being followed, and we stopped at a local market to purchase some toys. The castle did not see children very often, so it was most definitely lacking toys. Cabar asked for a trampoline and Ramsey wanted a skateboard, which sounded like a good idea at the time, but as soon as we got to the castle, I realized that the cliffs around here are no place for a toddler to skateboard. I ended up going back to the market and buying a craft set so I could show them how to make our family crests, all three of them, instead; the kids were Romanian, Egyptian, and Cullen.

The kids loved the trampoline, especially Cabar, who used it to do ridiculously convoluted flips midair. The family crest idea went well too, occupying their time for hours with all of the glue, sparkles, beads, and paint. When it was over, Ramsey made a bracelet out of some of the extra leather and beads and I helped him draw a miniature Romanian crest on the central piece of leather. Cabar also made a bracelet, but her's was all beads and no place for a crest, so I found a large, flat, rectangular bead and drew the Romanian crest on that.

After craft time, I took the children out hunting for wild cats and badgers that live in the area. Cabar took off immediately after a wildcat, clinging to the side of the cliff wall, in order to drop down on it from above and capture her prey. Ramsey was a little shy at first, but once he saw the badger, he tore after it like it was actually edible. I, of course, did not partake in the evening's delicacy, because that is not the type of blood I enjoy. I love those kids and I respect Carlisle's wishes as the adoptive parent enough to keep them on their diet, but I would not be joining them in it. Ever.

"Grandpa Vlad?" Cabar asked, looking up at me with her wide knowing eyes. "That Ioana lady was very pretty."

"Was she child? I hadn't noticed," I replied, thinking back to that encounter and what could catch a small child's eye. Maybe she had something shiny on.

"Yeah Grandpa Vlad. She had nice eyes," Ramsey said.

"My Lucinda had gorgeous eyes; they sparkled and lit up the room when she talked…" I paused there for a moment, lost in thought over my beloved Lucinda. I still miss her so much that it is hard for me to go on unless I am actively doing something with a schedule to stick to. Grief was hard, even all of these years later. "Well even if this Ioana had nice eyes, all vampires are a threat until proven otherwise. We don't know her, so she must stay back. And never let her know where our home is; that's the most precious secret we have, because if they can't find us, then they can't kill us either;" I said, hoping to drill a bit of safety and vigilance into them.

After that I had to pack the kids up and take them back to Manitoba and their parents. Carlisle and Esme do a pretty good job raising them and I wanted to continue being in their good graces, because the alternative would risk my regular visits with those grandbabies of mine. And my visits with my four grandchildren, Aiden and Adriel included, have evolved to become the highlight of my existence. Without Stefan around, I did not have much to look forward to when I went home; just an empty castle full of memories.

But I did go back. It was painful to be there, but it was even harder to stay away, because that was where all my precious memories of my Lucinda were. I feel closer to her when I am there. I can sit on my throne and look up at the giant oil painting of her hanging on the cavern wall. I painted it myself and it captures the elegant curve of her chin and the soft pucker of her lips, but not quite the sparkle in her red eyes. Nothing could do justice to those eyes, although I tried for over a century. Eventually I concluded that I would just have to add the sparkle back in, in my imagination.

It really was only my desire for revenge that kept me going all of these years and now that I have it, I find myself lost. Whenever I feel lost, I make myself busy. So I picked myself up and went to the market. Maybe I could find some new toys for the grandeggs to play with next time they come to visit. They had a lot of the old toys at the market, hand crafted and painted, the way they always have been. It might be nice to give Cabar one of the wooden dolls and Ramsey might like the wooden blocks that can be transformed into the shape of a man. Oh look, they have spinning tops too. I remember when I had one of these several thousand years ago; Stefan and I had to find something to amuse ourselves with all those years…

I was still contemplating what color tops to buy when I was interrupted. "Excuse me, Vladimir?" Ioana asked. Clearly her creator did not teach her how to tell when old vampires want to be left alone.

"Yes child?" I asked, placing my money on the table and indicating to the human seller that I wanted all of them. I could take them back to the Cullen Compound in Manitoba and watch all of the children play with them.

"Can you give me that tour of your castle now?" Ioana asked. She was a bit too spunky for my tastes.

"Tours are available from Dracula Incorporated and Vampires R Us; I'm not associated with either," I replied, listing off the two human companies that regularly led tours through the first Romanian castle. What was left of it was considered an old historic building worthy of covered tour buses and humans who did not know what they were talking about, but were more than willing to make a pretty penny off of the more gullible of their kind.

"No, not your old castle: the one you hid from the Volturi in. It's famous," she said as the human finished packaging up my tops and handed me the bag.

I indicated for Ioana to follow and took off for a more secluded area. "Young one, I cannot show you our hiding place or it will no longer be safe; that is what has kept me and Stefan alive all of these years."

"Stefan is still alive!?" she exclaimed.

"Ssh. Keep it down. Of course he is alive."

"But no one has seen him in over a century. The rumor is he died in America during some top secret assignment with the Cullens."

"Well I can assure you that he is alive and there was no top secret assignment."

"Then where is he?"

"He's in Nigeria, with his mate."

"Isn't that in Sudanese territory?"

"Yes, which is why he doesn't travel back and forth that often, but I can assure you that I spoke with him just last week and he's fine."

"And didn't his mate die with the rest of your coven?"

"Yes, inquisitive one, but he's found a new mate now. He and Uwa are very happy. Here, I even have a picture," I replied pulling out my wallet full of pictures and showing her my most recent one of Stefan and his mate.

"Ew, she's really ugly."

"It's not a she, it's a he."

"Stefan is gay? No way. Since when? The second oldest of our kind cannot possibly be gay."  
>"You need to learn your history young one. Stefan has always been gay. His first mate's name was Dracul and they were very much in love until the Volturi killed him."<p>

"Oh…I never knew." She was silent in thought for a moment before she asked, "Say, are those pictures of your grandchildren? Can I see them?"

"Yes, this here is Cabar and this one is Ramsey," I said pulling out pictures from my wallet. "And this one is Aiden and then there's Adriel. And this one is all of the kids together."

"Wow. None of them look anything like you."

"Of course not: I adopted the Cullens." I took my photographs back and turned to walk away. The new one was ignorant and bordering on annoying.

"Wait! Don't go! I didn't mean to upset you; I was just making an observation. Can I see more pictures?"

"Why? So you can memorize what they look like and know who to attack?"

"No silly, because you wouldn't show me them before when I saw you all in the market. I really wanted to see what our babies look like up close."

"Like I said: if you want to see babies, go to the capitol. That's where those babies live anyway."

"Alright. But can I ask you a question?"

"Haven't you asked enough already?" I replied, definitely annoyed with her.

She brushed me off and asked, "Why do you carry paper pictures? Don't they get ruined easily? See I have all my pictures right here on my cell phone." As she spoke, she activated her cell and pulled up dozens of three dimensional pictures of her and her creator.

"I like the old ways. Now off with you and leave an old man to his amusements," I said, shooing her away. Paper pictures were not even that old anyway. Back in my day we used to carve our photographs into rocks.

It took her a minute, but she did eventually go. I checked to make sure I was not being followed, before taking a round-a-bout way back to my castle. She did not follow me, but it felt like I was being stalked, because she turned up in the Manitoba capitol a week later. She was persistent, if nothing else.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Hmm…Vladimir has a stalker with a crush on him…do you think he can ever get over his mate and move on? Please Review!<p> 


	66. Book4 Robby ch9

Robby's POV:

"You want to do what?" I asked.

"I want to be a nomad with my mate," Justin replied.

"Your mate? How do you know she's your mate?" I asked. "You just met her."

"We're in love."

"Says who?"

"We do. And Ashley and Jasper too."

"Listen Squirt-"

"Justin," he corrected me. Everyone called him Squirt, but maybe he did not go by Squirt anymore now that he was a grown vampire, as of, oh thirty seconds ago. Justin was Mariam first son and another example of a host turned into a vampire.

"Justin, that doesn't necessarily mean she's your mate. I loved Ethan, even though your mother is my mate. Lots of people love other people and they're not mates."

"Yeah, but Rylea said we were mates," he replied.

Rylea was Eleazar's only child. He had been carrying her egg when his mate Carmen died. They had not wanted children, but that egg was all he had left of his mate, so he decided to germinate it. I had never met her, but word was that Rylea had all of her father's skills and more, because she could sense relationships and fighting skill, in addition to vampiric powers. Basically the kid started telling people they were true mates, good fighters, and they had such and such power and everyone made a big deal about it and decided they wanted the kid to tell them about themselves too.

Who was to say that the kid was right? Eleazar said she was and he was the one with the gift of knowing what other people's gifts are, so he should know what his own daughter's gift is, right? But he had never brought her to the Manitoba compound and verified with one of the mind readers that that was what was really going on. He kept her isolated from the rest of us in his cabin in Denali, Alaska. Kate and Garrett and their kids had seen her, but all those pilgrims that had traveled so far to find out what they already knew; they had all been turned away.

Eleazar was within his right not to let every single vampire see his daughter just because they wanted to amuse themselves with her power. It has only been four hundred years- listen to me now, I sound like that is not a long time, even though it is longer than I have been in existence- four hundred years since he lost his mate violently, so it was reasonable that he would want to protect his daughter. Strangers might be there to harm her and even if they had really come just to hear her predict something, they could turn violent if they did not like what they heard. So Eleazar never let visitors see his kid and he never left his Alaskan forest and I had no expectation that Justin would have contact with her when he went on his little trip to Alaska.

Justin did not even go to Alaska to see the Denalis. He went to track down Ethan, who he had just met a few months ago. Ethan was my old boyfriend who I had accidentally changed. He was now living as a nomad and had passed closed to the compound recently. I came across his trail while I was hunting and decided to track him down and see how he was doing. I was his creator and a creator likes to know how his creations are doing now and then and I had not seen him in almost two hundred years. I had not seen him since I decided to go back to my wife, this compound, and the vegetarian lifestyle; we broke up and he continued the nomadic carnivorous lifestyle he had been used to.

I was happy to see Ethan again and I invited him to the Manitoba compound for another visit, so we could catch up. There was not really a place for him here and it was awkward to have him around, but I really wanted to find out how he was doing. Was he mad at me for leaving him for my wife? Was he mad at me for changing him into a vampire and ending his human life? Was he happy now? Had he found a mate? Had he been getting into any fights with other nomads?

He said he was not mad at me and had not gotten into any fights. He was happy, but he still had not found a mate. He stayed for a few days and observed all of the wonderful things we have going on in our compound, like the blood plant and the government. He met most of the Cullens, Swans, and Hales. He even met Justin briefly.

Justin was friendly with Ethan immediately, but he was shy. Justin is a total of three hundred years old, two hundred as a vampire and one hundred as a human, same as me, but he is a complete and utter loner, with no friends outside the family. He also had never had a girlfriend and was a virgin. He was always shy, awkward, and out of place as a human and when he failed to bring home a love interest or even a friend, no one was really surprised. I was his step father, so perhaps it should have fallen to me to help the boy find his way, but the thought never occurred to me at the time. Maybe my wife, his mother, should have had a talk with him, but she had the talks with our girls instead.

Ultimately Jasper should have been responsible for him, because he was Jasper's host. And, well, Jasper thought his life was easier if he did not have to deal with another human spouse of another host. He already had me and Mariam on his hands and if Justin did not want to bring anyone home, ever, then Jasper was fine with that. Mariam and I did not bring other humans over either, besides our six children, that is. It probably had something to do with Jasper, Ashley, and or Scryan's manipulating powers; or maybe it was White Cloud, again, messing with our minds.

Whatever the reason, Justin never had any friends or love interests as a human and that did not change once he became a vampire. We tried to introduce him to other vampires when they visit, but mostly he stayed at home in his room and read books. Mariam and I chalked it up to Justin being a late bloomer and left it at that. There were other vampires who had been late bloomers, like Carlisle and Edward, who were two prominent members of our family. Neither of them took quite as long as Justin was taking, but they both took a very long time to find their mates.

When Ethan stopped by, I briefly introduced him to Justin and thought nothing more of it. Sure Justin acted shy and went off to his room to hide from our guest, but that was normal for him. What I did not know was that Justin ran into Ethan later when he went for a hunt. Ethan was not allowed to hunt humans on our property, so he was not out there hunting. He had been a nomad for so long that the confined spaces of homes and offices bothered him, so he had gone out for a brisk run and just happened across Justin.

I am not sure for certain what happened at that meeting, but it probably went something like: Ethan saw Justin hunting and stopped to say hello. Justin blushed and stammered and tried to hide behind a tree. Ethan pursued him and made sexual advances, like he does at anything male. Justin left, running home back to his room, and once he realized he was not getting anywhere, Ethan left too, heading back out into nomad territory.

Justin was moody after Ethan left; even more so than usual. Eliza suggested to Justin that it had something to do with Ethan. Perhaps he missed Ethan. That is when Justin told his mom and me that he had talked with Ethan in the woods, although he did not tell us the details. Eliza suggested that maybe the two were friends now and that Justin might be moody because he missed his friend. That was when he decided to go find Ethan.

Ethan would be easy to find, because he had said where he was going before he left. Well maybe not out loud, but Eliza had heard where he was going. He was heading west, to catch the annual aura borealis festival that the nomads put together every year in Alaska. There are only a few nomads that stay exclusively to Alaska and there are only three adults and five children in the Alaskan coven, but a lot more vampires pass through the area every year. There is always a large crowd of nomads around for the aura borealis and over the last few hundred years it has developed into quite the festival, so I am told. I have never been there myself, because I just watch it online every year. Why go in person when I can see everything on vamptube?

Mariam was excited that her son might make a friend, so she encouraged him to go. At the very least he could see a bit of the world and get out more. With his mother's urging, Justin left the house about three months ago and did not return until today. Now he was back and convinced that he was mates with a carnivorous nomad that he had just met. Justin, who barely even leaves his room, wants to travel around the world, roaming from place to place at will? Justin, who has never eaten a human in his life, wants to live with a woman who has never eaten an animal in her life? Not to mention that they hardly even know each other? And all because a young child told them that they were mates?

"And you're just gonna believe anything Rylea tells you huh?" I asked skeptically.

"Yep," he replied flippantly.

"How did you even get to meet Rylea? Eleazar doesn't let anyone see her, ever."

"I got to Alaska before the festival started. Actually, I was so early that none of the other nomads were there, so I tracked down the Denalis to ask about the hunting in the area. Kate and Garrett were easy to find and very friendly. They invited me to stay with them, especially because Kair and Kare kind of followed me."

"What do you mean they followed you? They were here the whole time," I interrupted.

"They followed me from another time. Alice and Jasper must have taken them to Alaska in another hundred years, because they were about a hundred years older than they are now and they just kept popping out of their wormholes to visit me. I would be hunting one minute and the next I'd have a set of twins climbing all over me. And you know I can't project my shield, so all they have to do is materialize a few feet away from me and then they can get right around it," he said. Justin had a wormhole shield, which basically meant he had an Kare and Kair shield.

"Kair and Kare were about the same age as the Denali kids and we're all vegetarians, so they sort of let me into their coven for a little while. They let me stay with them and they helped me with the twins and all the kids played together. And when the twins weren't around, Kate was teaching me how to project my shield further, to try and deter the twins from following me everywhere in the first place," he said.

"Since when can you project your shield?" I asked. "Bella and Masen can both project, and you've never asked either of them for help."

"I never knew I could. But then Eleazar came out of hiding and told me I could, so I started working with Kate."

"And is that when Rylea told you that you and this woman were mates?"

"Brooke. Her name is Brooke and no, that was before Ethan even arrived and before I had the tour of the new blood plant. By the time he finally showed up a month ago, I was already living with the Denalis and had seen Rylea a dozen times."

"Who is this Brooke anyway and why was she working at the new plant?" I asked.

Now that the big baby boom was over, there was nothing to do but open up a bunch of blood plants all over the world to deal with the blood shortage. The Denali vampires wanted a plant, but they had too many children and not enough adults to be able to take care of it themselves, especially during the initial building phase, when the vats of cells take the most work. The same was true of a dozen other cities that were also getting new plants, which was why all our typical blood plant workers had been shipped out to help, leaving Mariam and I to fill in here, in Manitoba. Justin had mostly been staying on Cullen Island and running the blood plant there; that is, he was before his trip. Lately I have been running up there three times a week to keep everything running smoothly.

"Brooke is Randall's daughter. Their whole family, Randall, Rex, Brooke, and Bryson were there helping get the plant started. Randall has experience with running the plant on Cullen Island and Bryson is from Alaska," he answered.

I was aware of the situation with Randall and Brooke. Before Rex was born, his host had given birth to Brooke, but Randall killed her father and took his place. He was in a sexual relationship with his host until Rex emerged, killing her, but long before that, he changed Brooke. Pretty much as soon as she was eighteen, Randall changed her and has treated her like his daughter ever since. But they were nomads and last I heard Brooke had gone her own way, leaving Randall to raise little Rex on his own.

I was not sure where Bryson came into the picture, so I asked. "Who's Bryson?"

"Brooke's adopted brother. A few years ago, when Randall first agreed to take the job in Alaska at the blood plant, he got lonely. He was also getting to know the Denalis, who traditionally have had numerous affairs with humans. Eleazar was leaving Rylea with Kate and Garrett and sneaking into a different human woman's bed every night; poor man is just devastated by his mate's death. Randall had had experience with a human host, so he saw Eleazar doing it, and decided to try regular human.

"Randall settled on a woman named Vivian who had a young son named Bryson. They all moved in together, with Randall telling Rex not to bite the two new humans. Bryson and Rex were the same age at first, but now Bryson is the older brother. The situation only lasted three years, because Randall accidentally killed Vivian during their intimate activities. Bryson had no one else to take him, so Randall kept him and raised him on his own, but that left him raising two kids with no help, so his first daughter, Brooke, came back to help him. Bryson turned eighteen last year, so he's just coming out of that newborn phase right now," Justin finished his explanation.

"So then you toured the blood plant and fell instantly in love with Brooke?" I asked.

"Well no, it didn't happen just like that. I toured the blood plant and met Brooke. Then I started volunteering there- I already know all the procedures, so I thought I could help- and I made friends with Randall and Brooke. Bryson, I guess, stays home and watches little Rex during the day. Anyway, we made friends and I got up the nerve to ask Brooke out on an official date. Only once we're out walking through the tundra and staring up at the stars, two pairs of twins showed up, so all of the Denalis came out to help me with them, including Eleazar and Rylea. And that was when she told us that we are mates."

"Okay…" I said, trying to wrap my head around this information. "So you and Brooke have been together, for like, a month now?"

"Sort of... Four weeks, but not quite a month."

"And you've decided to go off and be a nomad with her?"

"Yep. Well not just that: we decided we want to help open more blood plants around the world. I was really impressed with the new one in Alaska; it was really cool. There are lots of places around Canada and the U.S. that could really use a blood plant, like Seattle and New York. Ethan tells me there are lots of little vampires in Seattle and New York and no one there to help organize them all."

"And where does Ethan come into all of this?" I asked.

"He finally showed up two weeks ago and we had a chance to talk and hang out. He already knew Brooke from a few years ago when he made a move on her brother when Bryson was still human. Randall sent him packing and told him not to come back, especially while Bryson was human, because that's dangerous and all. Ethan was trying to see if Randall would let him see Bryson this year, now that he's a year old, but Randall said no. Bryson remembered Ethan and said he wants to see him and I passed that message along to Ethan. Ethan said he was going to hang around until he does get to see him."

"I can just imagine why Randall doesn't want to let Ethan see his newborn son."

"He said it was because he's worried that Bryson will forget to come home and just run off. He's barely a year old."

"Okay, so that's the latest drama going on with Ethan and you want to settle in a big city and help with a blood plant, right?"

"Right."

"And you're not gonna travel around as a nomad?" I asked, slightly confused, but mostly trying to give him a hard time.

"We want to do both: we're gonna travel around for a while, before picking a city to be our home base. Then we're gonna build a house and stay at it off and on. When we're there, we can help set up a new blood plant, and when we're not, we'll be nomads."

"You do know it takes a lot of work to set up a blood plant and that you can't just leave it to go off and be nomadic? If you do, all the cells will die."

"Well we'll find a place with other nomads around that want to help."

"And you've got no experience being a nomad, right?"

"Uh no, she showed me a bit. About three weeks ago I learned how to project my shield far enough that Kare and Kair won't follow me and then Brooke and I went off and explored the Alaskan tundra together. Did you know there used to be forests there, but all the trees just froze and fell over when the Alaskan plate was pushed further north? The frozen forests are still there, lying in the snow," he said, enthusiastically.

"No, not really," I answered. "What'd you two do for food?"

"Well I hunted whales and she had Alaskan."

"And it didn't bother you that she was eating Classics?"

"Not really. It actually smelled really good."

"Don't tell me you're thinking of eating one too."

"Why not? You did."

"And that was a mistake! I was hoping that you wouldn't repeat all of my mistakes."

"Just because it's not right for you, doesn't mean it's not right for me."

"And what about your mother? Are you gonna tell her then that you plan on eating people?"

"No, I'm not planning it. I'm just saying it doesn't seem that bad. I can hunt animals and Brooke can hunt Classics and everything will be fine."

"And you actually like the moving around part?"

"Yeah, now that Kair and Kare stopped following me, I do."

"And you're willing to go off with someone you barely know, because you're mates?"

"Yep."

"What about your mother?" I asked.

"What about her?"

"Well you're the only child she has left. All your brothers and sisters stayed human and have moved out. They're getting old and will probably die soon. Are you really gonna leave her like this, when she needs you?"

Mariam and I had six children together when we were human, but that was a long time ago. Our children were getting old, it was true, but I was definitely exaggerating, because the oldest was only two hundred and fifty, when humans were living to be about four hundred. But still, they were human and thought that Mariam and I had died in a car crash, so we could not let them see us. And because Mariam's first child, Jasper's mother, died of old age before I was even born, that left Justin, her second child, as the only one of eight children to still be in our lives. Seven children were a lot to lose; could Mariam handle the loss of the last one too? I guess we will find out soon enough, because he was leaving.

"I'm a grown man. I've got grey hair and wrinkles and I even look way older than you. Mom has said for hundreds of years that I'm free to move out whenever I'm ready."

"And now you're ready?"

"Yep."

"Fine, but you have to explain that to your mother and your creator," I said, giving up.

Maybe Mariam or Jasper could reason with him. She was his mother and he listened to her. And everyone listens to their creator. Jasper had only created two vampires who were still alive today and they were both his relatives, but he seemed like the type of creator that no one would want to mess with. No one messed with him at all, even if they did not know him.

"That's great honey!" Mariam exclaimed when Justin told her about his plans to run off with Brooke.

There goes the, "His mother will straighten him out," plan.

And if I thought Jasper would be more of a help, I was wrong.

"You're old enough to do whatever you want Squirt, as long as you keep the secret," Jasper said when he found out.

With Jasper and Mariam's approval, Justin went off with Brooke.

And so our last little hatchling flew the nest. Mariam and I still had our other family around us, but there were no more children living with us in our house in Manitoba or within an easy run on Cullen Island. Our nest was empty. Completely and utterly empty.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I only have one chapter left. Please review!<p> 


	67. Book4 Emmett ch10

Emmett's POV:

It started with Esme coming to me and asking me to teach her little monsters. Cabar and Ramsey were old enough to start kindergarten and there was no one else around qualified to teach a couple of pint-sized vampires, so I agreed to do it. How bad could it be? I have done it before. And while I was at it, we might as well round up a few more and make a class. My own children, Lilac and Mett, were still too young, but there were other children in the area. If we could get about ten of them together, that would work well.

**Kindergarten Classes**

**Starting this fall in Manitoba**

**Open to every child of appropriate age**

**Contact Esme for details**

That was the flyer Esme sent out. That is also the flyer that got too many responses, so many replies that we had meetings to discuss what to do about all of them. There was a suggestion that we could break the children into groups and teach the groups separately. Two classes on the same day would be too much for me, especially because I have Mett and Li. Neither of my babies was old enough to be in this class, so that would mean too much time away from them. But we could have a year-round school of sorts, with four classes that each attend for three months.

Would four classes be enough? We had gotten a lot of responses and separating them into only four classes would result in some pretty big classes. I like to keep Kindergarten classes small, so there is plenty one on one attention. That was not going to happen if we broke one hundred thirty seven children into just four classes.

We could break them up into classes by age instead. Not all of those children had been implanted in the first few years after the war ended. If we limited the first group to just the very oldest of the children this year and next year take the next oldest group and then the next, until all of those children had had one year of schooling and then repeat the cycle…Then the children would have very long gaps between lessons in which their skills were allowed to deteriorate. Not to mention that the whole system would fall apart the moment Lilac and Mett's year becomes old enough for school and more children are added to the system.

No, there was really only one thing that could be done about getting way too many responses: we had to cancel the class.

**Canceled due to popular demand: **

**Kindergarten Classes**

**Now starting this fall in Manitoba:**

**School Teacher Classes**

**Come learn how to teach Kindergarten**

**Not open to children**

**Contact Esme for details**

This was the cancelation flyer that went out; the flyer that also announced that I would be teaching a class on how to teach. Not to children, but grown vampires, possibly with children. Not just members of my family, but vampires throughout the world. If they were willing to make the journey to Manitoba and show up in my classroom, then I was going to have to teach them. All of them. Esme would not let me discriminate, so everyone who showed up for the first day was in. And she had insisted on spreading that flyer all around the globe, because we would need teachers all around the world, so I was dreading who might turn up in my class.

There was one familiar face sitting front and center that I was happy to see: Maggie of the Irish coven was here. She was one of the first to arrive at our compound, showing up two weeks ago with her mate Sean and four children. They have three boys, Viceo, Imperium, and Teneo, and one girl, Varia, and all four of them are four hundred years old and ready for Kindergarten. Two were their own and two were adopted from David and Caroline, Sean's fallen brother and his late wife. And if that were not enough children for the Irish, they had left behind Siobhan and her two eggs, who were also four hundred. There will definitely be enough kids for a class when she goes back home, especially if a few nomad couples or another coven joins them.

Maggie was a good choice for a Kindergarten teacher too. She was kind, smart, and loved children. She did not use to have much patience, but after having four children all at the same time for four hundred years now, she has really grown. Okay, sometimes I worry that she might go ballistic on one of the tikes, because she was the disciplinarian in the family. Sean was the big teddy-bear there for hugs and emotional support and Siobhan was the grieving widow who was just trying to make it to the next day, so Maggie had to be firm. Plus, it was in her nature and it was something desperately needed in a coven with six little monsters. If my own experience as a teacher was anything to go by, discipline was a trait that would come into great use for Maggie when she starts up her own class.

While Maggie was here, Sean was back at my house watching his four kids, along with my darling two, because their apartment was a bit cramped with six; I really hope my house survives. Esme had built a number of apartment style housing units in this compound, designed for guests associated with our government. There were also several cottages, like the one Savanna and her family were staying in, made for vampires who were staying for longer periods of time to help with the running of the compound.

Savanna was sitting next to Maggie, waiting for class to begin.

Savanna and her mate Dylan were one of the first pairs of nomads to implant eggs. They had been leery of our family at first, but Esme and Carlisle had convinced them to move to Cullen Island and help out with the blood plant for a time. And then they had gone to Australia to help set up a new blood plant in Penrith, just outside of Sydney. The nomads of Penrith had the plant under control now, so Savanna and Dylan had gone back to roaming about Canada and the northern United States. Dylan had just gotten into nomad politics after remaining steadfastly agnostic for the last four hundred years, so the family had been staying in one of our cottages here in Manitoba for a few months now.

Savanna seemed like a sweet woman and a good mother to her two daughters. She had some experience with babysitting groups of nomadic children, so hopefully she would not get run over too badly by the monsters. It was always good to have a nomadic representative in everything. Savanna, it seemed, was it for my class. And besides Maggie, she was probably the next least creepy.

"Have you seen Vladimir today?" Ioana asked me when she arrived. She may seem sweet and pretty, but she definitely had creepy down. How else could I explain Vladimir's stalker?

That is precisely what Ioana was: Vladimir's stalker. She was following him around, asking about him to anyone who knew him, and scarring the blood out of him too. He said he was afraid to turn around half the time, because he was worried that she might be there watching him. She had already followed him around the world a few times. He had tried to make it clear to her that he was not interested, but she was persistent.

Jasper said it was love. But if it was, it was only one sided love, because Vladimir is and will always be in love with his dead mate Lucinda; he only mentions his beloved in every third sentence, even though she has been dead for five millennia. He did not have time or room or even the ability to love someone new, but that did not stop Ioana from loving him. Vladimir said it was hero worship and similar to a typical school girl with a famous crush. That is of course if you agree with Vladimir that being the oldest vampire in existence makes him famous. I guess it kind of does, especially in his home country of Romania, where Ioana is from.

So Ioana was in love and Vladimir was not. In practice, the situation resulted in her following him around the globe and stalking him.

"Yes Ioana, he was here this morning," I admitted. She knew well and good that he was here; I could still smell his scent in my classroom.

"Will he be back soon?" Ioana asked hopefully, like a lost puppy looking for her master; a rabid lost puppy with plans of licking her master to death.

"No, he's on a secret mission for the next couple weeks. It's best if you didn't try to follow him," I replied, trying to give my friend a break. Vladimir was a pretty good guy and if he did not want her tagging along with him, then it was his call. He was doing work for us and it would be easier for him to do it if he were not always watching his back and looking over his shoulder. Well he did that anyway, but still, Ioana was a pain and everyone knew it.

"Oh…"

"Um, I'm about to start up my class here," I said, hoping to get her to move along. She could probably help out in the blood plant or something today.

"Oh yeah, I'm here to learn," she announced, plopping herself down into one of the open seats in the back, rounding out my class.

She is a stalker. She is Vladimir's stalker. She runs around trying to sniff his shoes. She has no kids. She has no experience with children or teaching or anything else remotely useful to this job. And she is creepy. She was probably just using this as an excuse to hang around the compound without working in the blood plant or being involved in politics. My Rosie had told her just yesterday that the apartments were for guests and people helping to sustain our way of life. Sniffing Vladimir's shoes did not count, so she had two days to pack up and move on. But if she was taking my class, then Rosie would have to let her stay.

I did not particularly want to teach Ioana and potentially subject young children to Vladimir's stalker, but Esme had said that I could not discriminate. I had to teach anyone and everyone who showed up and it was not like Ioana was that much worse than the others. In fact she was downright middle of the pack when it came to this bunch. Nombeko, of the Antarctic coven was less creepy, but Nur and Luca were worse.

Nombeko reminded me of Esme. She was nice, sweet, and kind and had a lot of maternal instinct; it was just misplaced for a while. Very misplaced. Her coven was the one giving Carlisle such a hard time right after the downfall of the Volturi. They had moved to secluded Antarctica and violated one of our laws by creating immortal children, because big brother was no longer watching or stopping them. But really it was because Nombeko and the other female in their coven, Dikeledi, both desperately wanted children and that was the only way they knew of to get them.

By the time Carlisle got around to organizing a group of warriors to go down to Antarctica and straighten the situation out, Nombeko and Dikeledi were both incredibly attached to their monsters and would not have given them up without a fight. And Carlisle, being the bleeding heart he is, decided that they could keep the immortal children, as long as they did not make any more and promised to keep them away from humans, which they did, for a time. Eventually they both had eggs and decided to give up the immortal children on their own, restoring the natural order of things.

Nombeko was definitely a better choice for a teacher than Ioana. She may have made a mistake with the immortal children, but she was a law abiding citizen now. Her coven was just another typical coven. Well they were except for the fact that they had eight children and only four adults and none of them were adopted. They were the first coven to have a second set of monsters. All four of them decided to have a second set with only a two hundred year gap in between, but that was just because of how maternal Nombeko and Dikeledi naturally were.

That maternal instinct would come in handy with a school class, not to mention that with eight children, they almost had enough kids for a class within their own coven. I say almost because the second set would not be ready for school for another two hundred years, but that was why Dikeledi and her mate had stayed behind in Antarctica: they were watching the four younger children, while Nombeko and her mate, Lefu, were here with the oldest four. Lefu was pretty good with kids himself, because he had also volunteered to watch Nur's two children while she was here.

Nur and her mate Kayden were here with their two children. Kayden was over at our blood plant, explaining why their kids needed to be watched. Kayden worked at the blood plant we had built in Singapore a few hundred years back. Their coven had been one of the first to volunteer to look after a blood plant, if we built it, and with the blood shortage we were facing at the time, we took them up on that offer, despite how weird their coven was.

Nur, Kayden, and the rest of them had been controlling the tiny island nation for about three thousand years now, which was a fair amount of time, even for us. It was longer than I have been in existence. They came to power back in the time of piracy and the exploration of the seas, both of which vampires are inherently good at. And when those things came to an end, they still managed to keep control of the shipping businesses that were stationed in their country and they did it all with pirate flair. She had an eye patch covering her missing right eye and seriously, she just looked dirty.

Rosie and Alice had both tried to wash her and show her what soap was, along with the rest of the representatives from their coven. Vampires hardly even get dirty, but no one had told the Singaporese that; they were steadfastly being filthy and vampires at the same time, because they had a pirate heritage to represent and all. At least the kids came clean and Rosie and Alice got the smell out of Nur, so I did not have to smell her. I will just have to try not to stare at her missing eye.

Dude, even the humans can make prosthetic eyes now! Just because it was a battle scar and proved Nur had survived a real fight did not mean she had to go around making the rest of us look at it! I mean come on, an eye patch, in the thirty-eighth century? Yeah, like that blends in real well. She should just paint a skull and cross bones on her hat and carry around gold coins in a leather pouch. This one, at least, had Ioana beat for creepy and weird.

There was only one vampire in this room who was creepier than Nur and that was Luca. He was the only guy in here, besides me, although I do know full and well that men could be good teachers. But the dude is old! Now that Amun, the Volturi, and a few other older vampires are all gone, Luca is the third oldest vampire left alive. There is Vladimir, then Stefan, and then wham! Luca! Dude is like four thousand years old and all white and flakey. Okay, Stefan and Vladimir are white and flakey too, but I am used to them. Luca, on the other hand, has only come to our island once before.

Luca did not come to pay his respects to any of our fallen brethren or acknowledge our rule. He was not terribly upset that the Volturi were gone, although he was mad that Renata, one of his creations who Aro used as his personal shield, was destroyed. He did not care about the rest of them. He did not come to see our blood plant or any of the technological advances we had made. He did not even come to see our children and hear about our eggs. He came to gather Makenna's ashes and collect her eggs. Makenna, who had fought and died with us, he was upset about; she was also his creation.

We pointed him to the area of the battlefield where Makenna and her mate Charles had burned and Creepy Old Guy went out there with a broom and a dustpan and swept them up (rumor is he was seen doing the same thing with a broom, a dustpan, and Renata's ashes, in the crater left over from the bomb blast). He put the ashes in a fancy antique Maltan urn, took the appropriate two flow-cells filled with eggs, and went back to Malta and his _human_ family. Dude still lives with his human descendants, even now, with all those hatchlings. Hatchlings, because he definitely did implant those two eggs and more, despite his short stay on our island; we think he stayed just long enough to figure out how to implant eggs before he took off. He is creepy I tell you.

No one even knows how Luca does it. How does he keep the vampire children from eating his human relatives? Or is that his secret? Is he letting the children eat his own relatives? The entire country, both islands, is pretty much infested with his relatives now. And how many hatchlings does he have? We know he has Makenna and Charles' two, but there are six vampires in his coven now, all relatives of his of course, and any number of them could have produced eggs. It is rumored that one of them is his mate, despite being his great niece, a thousand years removed. He probably has eggs of his own.

There have been no rumors of Luca breaking any laws, so our coven has had no excuse to go there. Carlisle said that if we are not invited and nothing is wrong, we should keep our noses out of other vampire's business. An invasive government is a bad government, Jasper likes to say. Not even Alice or Edward can think of any reason why we should butt in and force Luca to tell us about what all he has going on in his territory.

Whatever is going on over there in Malta, Luca has not told and he does not appear to be talking. All of the other vampires came in the room and made small talk and told each other about their wonderful kids, but not Luca. He came in and sat down and nodded when greeted. He has been utterly silent on almost every subject since arriving on our compound, except when he explained to Carlisle that he was here to take my class.

"Luca, my dear man, how are you? Where are Charles and Makenna's little ones? I was so hoping to see them," Carlisle had greeted him.

But he got nothing more than a, "Fine," and a curt nod until he asked, "May I ask what you're doing here?"

"I want to teach," Luca is rumored to have answered. Those, at least, are the words he repeated to me when I asked him why he was here.

I did not get any additional information out of the aging vampire and so I can only assume he left all those hatchlings, however many there are, with his coven back in Malta. Maybe I can work some information out of him, like confirmation that he did in fact germinate both of the eggs we gave him. But whatever the case, Silent Old Guy was getting my vote for most creepy vampire in the room, although he at least probably does have a whole class full of children to teach back home, unlike Ioana.

Well at least if Ioana learns a skill, she will have something to do, and then we can send her off on some missionary work somewhere or another and get rid of her. I am sure there are vampire children in South America that she could teach as long as we leave out the fact that she is a nut-job. She cannot keep showing up here if she has a class of Kindergarteners to teach in Chili, now can she?

'Alright class, let's get to work," I announced. "In this class we are going to learn how to handle a class full of young children and how to make appropriate lesson plans for them. If you do not like my lesson plans, you may change them in any way once you get back to your own class. This class is being offered by the government here free of charge, but we are by no means trying to impose anything about anything on anyone's children. You shouldn't either when you get back home, meaning sending children to your school classes in voluntary and optional.

"We think it is important for our children to learn basic skills like writing, reading, and arithmetic, but other vampires might have other values. Right now it is most important that all children learn the basic skills and facts can be driven home later. The most important thing, of course, is teaching the children to keep the secret, but that is something they should learn within the first year of life. By the time you get them, you should not have to do more than re-enforce this core value and eventually, when they're older, explain the rationale and logic behind it. "If there is something in my lesson plans, other than keeping the secret, that you take issue with exposing your own children to, let me know and we can probably do something to work around it, or just plain do something else instead. And despite what the flyer said, you will be exposing your own children to this class, because you will be using them to practice on. If you don't have any children of your own with you, you can borrow Cabar and Ramsey, because Esme said we could use them. Now, are there any questions?" I asked.

Ioana's eyes gleamed with the mention of Cabar and Ramsey, making me regret my previous statement. No one had any questions, so I continued on with my class.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: This is the last chapter. It's leading up to a relationship between Ioana and Vladimir and shows how vampire society is growing and adapting to having children. Eventually every big city will have a large building with a blood plant, a school, and a place for nomads to stay with their kids. I would like to thank everyone who's still reading and made it to the end! Especially those of you who have reviewed.<p> 


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